A FINE 22-BORE BOHEMIAN D.B. PERCUSSION SPORTING RIFLE

Details

A FINE 22-BORE BOHEMIAN D.B. PERCUSSION SPORTING RIFLE

BY ANTON VINCENT LEBEDA, PRAGUE, NO. 3719, CIRCA 1840

With etched twist sighted barrels cut with eight shallow grooves and signed on the rib at the breech, scroll engraved patent breeches with single central breech-hook, long shaped scroll engraved tang incorporating a silver escutcheon, signed shaped scroll engraved locks each with safety-stop in front of the blued scroll engraved hammer, the right lock engraved with a buck and a doe, and the left lock with a pair of pointers, each scene in a landscape, figured walnut half-stock, cheek-piece, chequered grip, scroll engraved iron mounts including pierced trigger-guard with applied pierced scrolled dark horn plate on the tang, hinged patch-box cover engraved with a stag leaping a fence in a mountainous landscape, set triggers, iron sling swivels, and original brass-mounted ramrod, each side of the butt marked with a record in lines of brass tacks of the different varities of game shot with the rifle, Liège proof mark
24¼in. barrels

Exhibited

The Game Fair, Longleat House, July 1962

Lot Essay

The game register reads as follows:

H. = Hirsch (red deer stag) 9
Th. = Theire (hind) 5
Klb. = Kalb (fawn) nil
Rb. = Rehbock (roebuck) 11
A. = Auerhuhn (capercaillie) 1
B. = Birkhuhn (little wood grouse) 2
S. = Schwartz Wild (wild boar) nil
F. = Fuchs (fox) nil
Ue. = Uele (owl) 2
Db. = Dam Bock (fallow deer buck) 65
Dg. = Dam Geiß (fallow deer doe) 73

This makes a total of 168 head

The late owner's hand-written note (of 1967) in the patch-box gives the above details, as well as the provenance of the rifle: '...was purchsed by me in Zürich, Switzerland in 1948 & is believed to have come from the Castle of Baron Wilczek in Czechoslovakia & was part of a Gewehrkammer which was taken out of Czechoslovakia just before the Russians took over the country. It was sold in Zürich by Wettstein of Mühlegasse, & included magnificent pairs of wheel-lock and flintlock rifles & Tschinkes, most of which I was able to purchase'

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