Jesus! Go away for a day and what happens? Have you guys have lost it?
Trying to honor Dales request I wont mention the ahem...... umentionable other name but it seems to me theres an interesting thread here. Some of you may remember the question posed last summer about the "umentionable" vs Waterford.
Where we ended up though I dont believe it was ever summarized for the list was that some of us have a preference for the impirical and some the intrinsic.
Dales arguments today clearly expose his preference for what Id call the intrinsic. The value is there when the guy who made it is the guys name on the frame. eg. Jack Denny made the best and "realest" Hetchins.
Somewhere in several of the other messages and I think e ritchie had this (though he qualifies for both) is the notion that best execution is where the value lies e.g. the comments about carefully handfiled lugs, etc.
Seems to me this isnt an on/off switch or zero sum game. You gets to choose and pays your money. Some of us like exquisite detailing whether we know the actual artisans name or not. And some tolerate a lot of bobbles and wiggles because some famous name is there.
Whats cool is the market ultimately decides and it seems the value over time is when both are present - great work and great name. This is the stuff of branding. Richard, himself probably does this better than anybody - combine highest quality execution and a wonderful job of branding. Brians pretty cool too.
For some of us its fun to go back and aquire (sp?) - ah buy - accumulate those for which the market has spoken and for some its the adventure of trying to guess who today will be the great of tommorrow an example might be Richard Moon.
Yahoo like the energy!
Tom Rawson
Oakland, Ca