I'm put off that this being a "right handed guitar," the humming birds upside down when you pick it up and play it.
When you go to the extent of making something this lavish, it seems it would make sense to plan it a little better.
OR, it was built the way it is because the builder knew no one would ever play it so he oriented the birds to look best with the guitar sitting on a stand or hanging on a wall.
Ever since I read on one of these forums someone's post calling Mother Of Pearl (MOP) Mother Of Toilet Seat my perspective on the stuff is forever changed. Now when I see it ornately applied to anything I snicker. Don't even need to make a statement about it being in poor taste, like this guitar. It's in poor taste just to think of using it now for me.
It's like the 1st time I heard the line in Romeo And Juliet slurred to "Romeo, Romeo, where fart thou Romeo?" by a cast member cutting up in rehearsal. The play is forever a snicker waiting to happen for me.
No they're not. They're exactly the way the builder wants them for hanging the guitar. It's a hallmark of his work as a display piece, not a player. For that purpose, all the inlay work is referenced to hanging the guitar.