Lee Metford MkII(?) "Alex Martin, Glasgow"

[kjohn]

Gorgeous! I have a "sportered" 1893 Enfield II. done by "Alex Martin Glasgow 4347".

[Surpmil]

Is it just me or does any one else think the older the rifle type the more elegant the lines seem to be?

I would agree, back to about the mid 1700s. Beyond that some of them look rather freakish to our eyes. I'd say it was around that period that ergonomics (or we could say "functionality") began to be a serious factor in design, but aesthetics remained very important until well into the last century; one has only to look at a hardware or machinery catalogue from say 1914 to see that. Deco was a case of throwing the baby of aesthetics out with the bath water of WWI and all that went with "the past" in the popular mind post-WWI: "Goodbye to All That" as Graves summed up the feeling. I ain't no art historian, but it's my impression that is where "modern" (ie lacking all ornamentation or shaping beyond that required for functionality) began in industrial design...but no, that's not right, Bauhaus for example was well under way before WWI, which probably just greatly accelerated the process of change.

So, yes, I like them old guns too!

That Alex Martin is a beauty and from the engraving etc. probably their top end as well.