The “Burin Dotting” is a technique who permits to engrave manually extremely high definition
images, producing millions of micro-dots on the surface of a metal base; paying close attention to the density of light and dark tonal reflections changes and manipulating light and light absorption, one can create extreme definite details of a specific image.
Men used to engrave weapons and tools since the very dawn of the humanity, personalizing them and accounting the first artistic behaviours; then, as societies and technology evolved, the bond between art and weapons continued: as for a king or a tribal chieftain, decorating weaponry represented acquiring and holding political power, making suit to those weapons the status that was given to his owners. Even today, what are scepters or crowns if not vestigial weapons?
Whatever the origins are, at the same time the first firearms were developed, the tradition of decorating them was since long been established. The earliest matchlocks were probably issued as military tools, and hence not often decorated; anyway, as wheel-locks and flint-locks evolved, some o the best artistic efforts of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were applied to them.