The World of Beretta; An International Legend Hardcover - 2000

New York, N.Y.: Random House, 2000. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Peter Beard (Photographer), and Mauro Pezzotta (Ph. xii, 370 pages. Oversized book, measuring 8-3/4 inches by 11-1/4 inches. DJ has sticker residue on front. Illustrated endpapers. Includes Introduction, The Beretta Heritage, The Beretta Elegance, Sporting Shotguns for the Field, Shotguns for Competition, Military Rifles and Machine Guns, Handguns for Sport and Self-Defense; Beretta's M9: The U.S. Service Pistol Triumph; Sporting Rifles and Big Game Hunting; Beretta Sport, the Galleries, and subsidiaries; The Beretta Family: Present and Future; Epilogue: Current Information through Early 2000. Also includes Technical Data, Appendices, Notes, Bibliography, Acknowledgments, Collection Credits, and Photography Credits, and Index. R. L. Wilson was a freelance consultant in the fields of Americana, firearms, and engraving and the author of more than 50 books, including benchmark works on Beretta, Colt and Winchester. The oldest industrial firm and the oldest gunmaker in the world, Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta, S.p.A., launched its 475th anniversary with the publication of this lavish history and celebration of a unique world of fine guns. After nearly five centuries, the Beretta factories remain the model for enlightened production techniques, while the company has been fine-tuning its entrepreneurial spirit since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Doges of Venice. Fifteen generations of Berettas have led their compete in the transition from specialist gun barrel crafting. The Italian company stands supreme partly because it is on the cutting edge--of design, quality, manufacture, performance, and style. Through the centuries, the family has guided the company in the transition from specialist gun-barrel makers to, in Napoleonic times, creator of sporting firearms, later adding military and law-enforcement arms and importing arms by Colt, Remington, S&W, and Winchester, still later developing one of the first international industrial enterprises. The Beretta line is the firearms enthusiast's dream: self-loading pistols, rifles, and shotguns; bolt-action rifles; double-barrel over-and-under and side-by-side sporting rifles and shotguns; single-barrel trap guns; and from these, a refined line of premium-grade guns unsurpassed by any gunmaker in the world. All are created with the perfect melding of the most advanced, space-age, computer-generated production machinery, in concert with traditional hand craftsmanship, in the ancient gunmaking village of Gardone, Val Trompia. In 1985, Beretta's classic Model 92 pistol was adopted as the M9, the official U.S. Armed Forces sidearm, following extensive competition with the designs of other companies, sessions that subjected the pistol to the most rigorous tests. The Model 92 is the most widely used self-loading pistol in law enforcement and the military in the world today. Beretta shooters dominate national, international, and Olympic shotgun competitions, and are a commanding factor in the rapidly developing world of sporting clays. This richly illustrated, beautifully presented work joins R. L. Wilson's other firearms classics: Colt: An American Legend; Winchester: An American Legend; The Peacemakers; Steel Canvas; Ruger & His Guns; and Buffalo Bill's Wild West--a collection of books that comprise an unsurpassed tribute to the art, craftsmanship, history, mechanics, performance, and romance unique to fine guns.