CIRCA 1680

Details

An Unusual 24-Bore Breech-Loading Wheel-Lock Sporting Rifle (Müller-Büchse)
Circa 1680
With swamped octagonal sighted barrel (surface pitted) cut with nine grooves and with slotted screw plug on the upper side of the breech, an indistinct inscription, and at the rear between two bands, the unicorn mark of Schwäbisch-Gmünd, plain tang with folding triple-aperture back-sight, flat lock with integral wheel-cover pierced with a trefoil and with sliding pan-cover (cock and bridle replaced), figured walnut full stock (butt wormed, fore-end repaired) carved in relief with scrollwork and foliage on a punched ground, brass mounts including pierced serpentine side-plate, carved cheek-piece, set trigger, patch-box on the underside of the butt, later horn fore-end cap, and later ramrod
31¼in. (79.4cm.) barrel

Provenance

The Barons Leigh, Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The screw plug, more commonly encountered on English flintlock firearms (cf. lot 76), is likely to have been fitted in this country, possibly by a member of the Paris family of Warwick, who worked for the Barons of Stoneleigh. The Paris signature appears on the barrel of a gun fitted with a self-spanning wheel-lock mechanism, formerly in the gun-cabinet at Stoneleigh Abbey, and in the Warwickshire Museum, Warwick since 1963 (inv. no. 22/1963/B)

More from FINE ANTIQUE FIREARMS FROM THE W KEITH NEAL COLLECTION

View All