Hand-made 12 gauge percussion-cap shotgun with hand checkering hanging over entrance to library. We believe it was made shortly after the Civil War when my greatgreatgreatgrandfather come back home. He was a wheelwright with the 5th and 7th Indiana Artillery Regiment.
I went to Von Tobel's and bought brass hooks with nice long wood screws.
Close up of "fancy" hand checkering:
Goergeous... hand made by an ancestor?... I'd have that in a safe at jeweler.
An H&R single shot would be neat. They can be had cheap and you could still shoot it. See them at every show. About a hundred bucks regardless of condition.
I was thinking something like that, a rifle with a holstered pistol hanging from the sling.
Rather than some random broken real gun, we're leaning now to a Denix Garand prop rifle and a flag or plaque as a sort of tribute to both our grandfathers.
Both were in the Navy, mine was WWII Pacific and her's was either WWII Europe or Korea.
They're still living, but both would have trained and/or served with them as their arms.