On July 31, at age 83, Winston Churchill of Proctorsville, Vermont, went to a world where his eye will always be sharp, his hand steady, and time will not matter. He was, arguably, the greatest American gun engraver of the 20th century. For a certainty, during a career which began in 1973 and ran for 30 years, there were only four other engravers in the world who could be mentioned in the same breath.

Churchill, the son of a farmer, grew up if not in poverty, then in something very close to it. It colored the way he thought for the rest of his life. After high school he served in the Navy, and then worked for a local Vermont engraver. But this was not to be his future. In June, 1969, he went to New York City, to Griffin & Howe, ...