No1 of a pair from Simon, just finished.

Good Morning Phil, Tis another great piece from the Coggan "dynasty"!! Thanks for the post.

SIMPLE EXCELLENT another fine work of art :bow:

Phil,I like the way Simon placed the doves and pheasants and dodged all the pin and screw holes,keep up the good work young man. J.J.

The main problem with a game scene guns are the holes, it is possible to engrave with them in the body of the birds as in my thread, not ideal but sometimes there's no way around it.

Phil

Mind boggling beautiful and amazingly intricate! What a great masterpiece.

Fantastic work, thanks for the photos

Phil and Simon Wonderfully done by one of England's finest craftsman and artists. World class and is going to be the pride of some sportsman for generations to come I hope.

We know that Simon is your son and very little else. Would love to learn some background on his studies and ask if he works with you in your studio or is he working elsewhere? Did he have formal art instruction and if so where did he study? What are his other interests? Is he a musician like the old man? Does he also craft the train panoramas? Do you have other children with an interest in the arts? Did hi happen to assist on your wife's car? I would just like to get to know Simon a bit better. Kind of a fan club thing. Thank you, Fred

I can not think of a higher compliment than to have a son follow in the footsteps of the father producing such fine work.

Fantastic work from Simon.

All of which proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Cheers
Andrew

Amazing work as usual, thanks Phil

Simon thanks everyone for the kind comments.

Marrinan said:

Phil and Simon Wonderfully done by one of England's finest craftsman and artists. World class and is going to be the pride of some sportsman for generations to come I hope.

We know that Simon is your son and very little else. Would love to learn some background on his studies and ask if he works with you in your studio or is he working elsewhere? Did he have formal art instruction and if so where did he study? What are his other interests? Is he a musician like the old man? Does he also craft the train panoramas? Do you have other children with an interest in the arts? Did hi happen to assist on your wife's car? I would just like to get to know Simon a bit better. Kind of a fan club thing. Thank you, Fred

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Fred, as you know, Simon is not into forums so I will try to answer your questions.

Simon has had no formal art instruction but has been a good artist since very young. After leaving school he had many jobs usualy for small electronics companies, these only lasted for a year or so when the companies failed and he was left looking for emplayment, again.
When his last job came to an end my Linda my wife and Simons mother suggested that I took him on as an apprentice. I had mixed thoughts about this, knowing how hard it was for me to learn how to engrave without instruction, books and tools, it was a bit different thirty years ago!

I set a bench up next to mine, drew some lines etc on a practice plate, gave Simon the tools and showed him what to do and left him for twenty minutes to get on with it. When I took a look I was amazed at what he had done, ok, it was not perfect but a lot better than I could do in that twenty minutes. What I realised was that having a teacher and the right tools makes all the difference.

Simon moved on to background shading for me whilst still practicing scrolls and bulino.

After about a year he was given a gun, and then a pair of William Evans S/S's for a french customer who wanted scenes of his Chateau underneath. These were completed and were featured in Shooting Times with a front cover and an article.

Simon still work next to me, his working hours at the moment are 8.00am to 7.00pm...he has quite a lot of work on!!

Simon is married to Sian an has three children, Mason 8, Grace 2 and newly born Scarlett, he plays guitar, but not so much lately, he spends his spare time in his gym!

My youngest son Scott attended Bromley Art Colledge and has a BA with Hons. He is the top designer for DFS who are the leading furnature manufacturers in the UK, married to Helen and has two children, Harrison 9 and Sebastian nearly 2. He lives in Nottingham.

Here's some of his early artwork, including our two Great Danes.

Phil

Great post! Great job on the engraving! Great story! I personally love to here the story of how great artists become who they are and how they got there! I hope one of my 3 kids will follow in my footsteps and become a jeweler or hand-engraver.

OK, Phil, fill us in on who did the scrollwork on this wonderful piece, as if I remember correctly from your post weeks ago that Simon wasn't doing this portion and it didn't refer to you as doing it.
Just curious as to wether or not this is a father/son collaboration?
Either way, this is an awesome work of art, but could still use that old cow pony blowing up from the surprise attack!
Jeff

All Simon's work, he has his work, I have mine, we very rarely collaborate unless a customer asks, all I did was take the pictures!

Phil

Thank you Phil for filling me in on Simon and Scott. I appreciate your taking some time and thought to fill me in about both your sons. I remember your showing us you first piece you submitted to Holland and Holland I believe . It was a miniature not much bigger than a thumb nail of a woman if I am remembering correctly. It was wonderful. Your sons, both of them, are chips off the old block as they say. Simons engraving is certainly some of the best. Thanks, Fred

Simon, I am glad to get to know you a little better. Your truly a fine engraving artist. Fred

Texas Cowboy, That was the elephant gun. Fred

Very interesting post, Phil

Thank you for sharing it with us