I know. I have Peter Main's work printed out and held up as inspiration for our toolers. These two cases are actually a walk in the park for Peter as far as I am concerned. As always with him the tooling is clean and crisp as Rex said, but the actual pattern isn't very hard for someone of his caliber.
I have been preaching that people should judge tooling the same way they judge inlays on a cue. When cases get into the $800 - $3500, even north of $5000 then it's time to start really looking at the details in my opinion.
I have a picture of a flask the Peter did, this one, http://petermain.com/images/flasks.jpg the larger image.
Some day I will do a case that looks something like this. We have experimented with it a little and failed so far. The detail and steady hand required here is phenomenal in my opinion.
I hope that someday cases with collaborative work are judged by the artist who did the work as well. This is why I tell my toolers to sign their work. Like Sandra Brady and Bob Hergert and others I think that the artist who does the carving should be noted and celebrated. (and judged if one wants to compare notes)
Anyway, I am glad to see that someone has opened the door to re-creating some of the Fellini designs before I did it. Now the "heat" is off me
He made two, not 2 million.
chris G<------big difference
