From the Cover and Introduction: Gold Inlaid Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver engraved by Gustave Young, 1853. A mate to Czar Nicholas I Presentation in The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Art of The Gun

A five-volume series in hardcover pocket-size editions dealing with

Highly Decorated Arms from the Renaissance to the Millennium

By Robert M. Lee & R. L. Wilson

Published 2002 by Yellowstone Press

No object in history can rival the best quality gun in its multiple status as masterful object of decorative art, captivating mechanical marvel, tool of history, favorite for presentation, treasured equipment of sport, and symbol of freedom. The guns featured in The Art of the Gun are among the finest and most magnificent in the world today. They are both antique and modern and are by major gunmakers, such as Colt, Winchester, Fabbri, Holland & Holland, Purdey, Westley Richards, P.V. Nelson, Angelo Lazarino and Tony Galazan-Connecticut Shotgun Mfg. Co.

The Art of the Gun celebrates fine guns of the artistic genre in several uniquely regal and magnificent firearms, of which nine are singled out for especially lavish presentation:

Volume I

Chapter I:
The Lazarino Pierced and Sculpted Steel Masterpiece Pair of Wheelock Pistols

Chapter II:
The Magnificent Colt Single Action Matched Pair of Revolvers by Frank E. Hendricks

Chapter III:
The Exquisite Winchester Model 1886 Gold Inlaid Sporting Rifle

Chapter IV:
The Cased "Gorilla Gun" by Westley Richards, a Magnificently Cased Double Rifle

Bibliogaphy

Index

The world's finest gun designers and craftsman devoted loving care in the creation of such masterpieces. The variety of materials challenged the ingenuity of centuries of artisans: steel and precious metals carved and inlaid, selected special woods often richly carved, and such exotics as ivory, mother-of-pearl, abalone, tortoise shell and much, much more.

Treasured by collectors and museums, these rare, sometimes unique, artifacts were often made for royalty, captains of industry and commerce, artists, musicians and publishers. The pieces in The Art of the Gun are now in the Robert M. Lee Collection Trust.

The photographs by David Wesbrook capture the multi-facetted appeal of these arms with exceptional clarity and imagination.The text identifies each piece, and explains its significance in the evolution of firearms, its role in history and in the world of decorative art.

In its fifty-six 4 3/4 x 6 inch pages (with fold-outs), The Art of the Gun, Volume I presents over 70 color illustrations, and more than 4,000 words of text and captions. It is printed on coated stock, heavyweight paper, and has a magnificent dust jacket – printed both front and back. Weight: 1 pound.

Volume I Price: $19.95

The following additional volumes are available individually:

Volume II: Antique European Firearms Masterpieces, @ $25.
Volume III: Colt Firearms Masterpieces, @ $25.
Volume IV: Winchester Firearms Masterpieces, @ $25.
Volume V: Modern Sporting Arms Masterpieces, @ $25.

Boxed set of five, The Art of the Gun series is available @ $115.

The Art of the Gun is the first miniature book series published on the six-century history of firearms.It precedes a lavish, indeed monumental, multi-volume set of landscape format books measuring 11" x 14" and composed of 1,200-pages. This complex project covers the four themes celebrated in the chapters of the miniature The Art of the Gun series. These large volumes are presently in the planning and writing stages, with photography already largely completed.

The mammoth, 11-inch high by 14-inch wide pages, will be designed and produced in an unexcelled level of quality worthy of the magnificent objects featured in the book. Each firearm is planned to be published in actual size – and some details will be even larger. Publication of the set is presently planned to be limited to 2,500 numbered and signed copies, printed on the finest paper and bound in the best materials available.

About the co-author: Robert M. Lee has been a lifelong enthusiast of fine guns, exploration, conservation and hunting. In 1965 he founded and became owner-President of Hunting World, Inc., ranked among the world's foremost designers and manufacturers of luggage, sporting clothing, watches and accessories. His expeditions have taken him into some of the most remote areas of the world, and he has long been an advocate of conservation and the sustained use of wildlife and natural resources. Hunting World's more than 100 retail stores and points of sale are located in North America, Europe and the Far East. Lee is the author of Safari Today and China Safari. He funded the Robert M. Lee Gallery of American Arms at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Robert M. Lee Endowment for Graduate Studies in Sustained Yield Wildlife Management at the University of Montana. The Foundation also provides financial assistance to many environmental organizations.

Design by VLP, Visual Linx Productions

Back of dust cover foldout:
Brescian wheel-lock Pistol. Relief chiselled steel in the the "lace" style, pierced and with the select walnut stocks lavishly mounted with steel buttcaps, triggerguards, ramrod ferrules, and other fixtures. c. 1650-54.

Inside dust cover:
Over/under shotgun by Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing, New Britain, Connecticut, founded by Tony Galazan. Ornamental engraving by Giacomo Fausti of Creative Art, game scenes by Firmo Fracassi. English Boss type forend and English style stocks of Turkish walnut: 12 bore with 28-inch barrels. Believed to be the only American shotgun engraved to date by Fracassi, whose game scenes set a new standard of embellishment in the entire history of firearmes decoration.

The leather-lined brassbound wood casing covered in ostrich, built by Peter Werner of Arno Werner Bookbinders exclusively for CSM. Peter, the author's son, continues the hand book and gun-case bindery established by his grandfather, Arno Werner. For further information contact: Peter A.A. Werner, Arno Werner Bookbinders, 4421 W. 123rd Place, Broomfield CO 80020. Phone (303) 818-9296.