Originally Posted by alvin
This could be an excellent example of "self-contained system trap".
Usually, by viewing a collection, it's possible to estimate owner's knowledge level on certain type of a gun. It's simply impossible to know a gun's detail by just reading books, especially in broomhandle domain. Of course, it's also hard to know a type of gun's overall picture by just observing samples without reading books, that's like Indian story of blind men trying to describe how an elephant looks like by touching a few areas on elephant's body,,, but that's a different story... (Without numerous detail documented, is that good or bad? we never know -- Lugers have lots of details documented, of course there is good aspect of that, but also helped creating fakes at a higher level. Book authors, be aware of that)...
Say, he had a bunch of these, so he thought he knew something. That's not a unreasonable assumption. But there is a trap -- if all his samples are this type, he may fall into a "self-contained system trap". Say, all his samples are new repro, he compared them, even summarized out the common, the noticeable points, etc, etc, and he thought this is nice original, then, that's the result. He's still a great connossieur, but the context is repro.
So, it's important to exchange thought with others. And, trade guns directly or indirectly with others. Using latest Chinese political slogan that I read from news, this is called "sync with the world".
|