Artful Instruments: Georgia Gunsmiths and Their Craft

This book accompanies the exhibition of the same name, on view at the Georgia Museum of Art September 30 - December 10, 2017. Like many decorative arts in Georgia, gunsmithing has been overlooked except by a devoted group of collector-scholars. The Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts at the Georgia Museum of Art aims to identify and make accessible art forms that have received less attention in our region, including these rifles, focusing on them as works of art, not as functional objects. Gunsmithing involved many crafts, such as silversmithing, casting and wood working. These rifles represent the highest level of craft in 19th-century Georgia as well as some of the finest artistic achievements in the state at the time. This exhibition catalogue features all works illustrated full page and in color, plus essays by co-curator Sam Thomas, Wayne T. Elliott, Dennis Glazener and Linda Chesnut, detailing much about the lives and work of these Georgia craftsmen.