A grey-haired frontier assayer weighs gold on a small balance scale at his cluttered bench. He wears an apron with a leather work vest and rolled sleeves, glasses perched on his nose, surrounded by sample bottles, reagent jars and stacked ledgers.

The balance beam, tabletop of vials and careful hunched posture tell the whole story of a mining-town assay office, where prospectors brought ore to be tested and valued.

An excellent character for an Old West or gold-rush diorama, a mining-town main street, or a narrow-gauge railroad layout that needs authentic period life.