What makes an engraved gun worth anything more than a regular one? (absent any particular historical association?)
Only the execution of the art, and the tastes of the purchaser. As noted, the work isn't top quality, and the style doesn't appeal to my tastes, so to me its not remotely worth the asking price.
on the other hand, the seller clearly thinks it is, and all he's got to do is fine one person who agrees with him, and has the cash...
It's not impossible to have a mechanically unsound gun engraved (instead of properly fixed), and sell it, because, after all, no one would shoot an engraved gun much, right???
There are people who do that kind of thing, or so I've heard...
People pay huge amounts for something they say is "art", that to me, isn't.
When you see something like this, and wonder at its worth, you need to know the kind of cost it took to create it. I have no idea, myself, but an engraver could tell you what "dollar level" job it was, so you could figure that against the asking price,
What I mean is, an $800 gun and a $500 engraving job does not make a $2200 gun. Or at least not to me.