Everybody, inlcuding Igor Karklinsh and Dig Hadoke, say they're pretty commonplace - but I still find them amazing.

A combination of perhaps the most advanced action for the edge, and the oldest viable lockup - sounds as post-modernistic as anything you can find in a modern art gallery.

I did a short post about them in my blog but the pictures pretty much tell the story.

(this one is (c) Dogs and Doubles
Do you agree that the rationalle for the design was an overreacted attempt to play it safe: Nitro cartridges were still a new thing in 1890s, and gunmakers weren't too sure what their actions and metal could handle.