For what it's worth, I have seen original Colt factory merchandising display boards. The preference was clearly toward "artistic" arrangement . . . usually concentric circles, on cloth. You might look in some of the books on the history of Colt, S & W, Winchester. IMHO According to SOHS Collections Department: > > We are reinstalling a portion of our firearms collection in two narrow > cases designed to be inside a late 19th century gundealer/gunsmith's > shop. I haven't found any historic photographs of the interior of a > local merchant's store to help me decide how to accurately mount the > firearms. Does anyone else have evidence of historically correct > mountings? Should the firearms be placed vertically or horizontally? And > should the back of the cases be lined with any material (e.g. felt) or > left bare wood? Suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance. > > Mary Ames Sheret > Curator of Collections > SOHS > Medford, Oregon >