CIRCA 1640

Details

A Very Rare 8-Bore 'English-Lock' Fowling-Piece
Circa 1640
With swamped two-stage barrel of earlier date and originally fitted with a U-shaped back-sight at the rear of the breech, plain tang, flat lock retained by three side-nails, with separate pan, applied buffer for the cock, and bridle to the steel-spring, the trigger moving on a pin above the tail of the lock-plate, full stock (perhaps an early working replacement) carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang (minor chips and cracks, some bruising), iron trigger-guard, brass ramrod-pipes, pivoting iron support attached to the muzzle, and wooden ramrod with worm (iron parts with some pitting), London proof marks, barrel-forger's mark indistinct
77½in. (196.8cm.) barrel

Literature

J.N George, English Guns and Rifles, pp. 32-34, plate II (2)
Richard Akehurst, Sporting Guns, plate 14
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, p. 84, plate 18
John S. Cooper, For Commonwealth And Crown, p. 219

Exhibited

The British Sporting Exhibition at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, 14-30 January 1938, cat. no. 4
Castle Museum, Colchester, 19 January-14 February 1959
The Game Fair, Longleat House, 1962

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

This early English fowling-piece is of similar size and finish to the gun in the portrait of Captain Sir Thomas Southwell (circa 1630) now in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (see illustration)

When acquired by the late owner (prior to 1938) this gun 'was still upon the active list, being employed as a bird scarer by a farmer who had a high opinion of its powers, and who affirmed that he had, upon occasion, brought down as many as forty rooks with a single shot from the old gun' (George, op. cit., p. 34)

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