- Nov 11, 2009
- 31,021
Everyone has different opinions, of course, but when someone(s) have taken special care of a gun like this one, I personally feel and obligation to continue that level of custodial care if I'm lucky enough to have one that nice come to me.
Agree.
A hundred years' worth of restraint and careful storage ought to be respected.
Then there's the value issue: the world's best example of anything worthwhile carries a lot of financial weight, which is easily diminished, and cannot be restored.
Then there's the historical value of having a pristine example of an object can be very useful to those who have an interest in such things. For example, there is a purported Stradivari violin in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum which is virtually unplayed. Its chief value lies in being unchanged from the days when it was first constructed, and as such is of great importance to luthiers; most violins of the era have been messed with to a significant degree, such that they depart greatly from the original maker's intent. I'm not saying this pistol has that sort of significance, just making a point about the value of having an iriginal, unaltered example. It's a time capsule.