Lot 79
79
A VERY RARE AUSTRIAN BACK-ACTION MIQUELET-LOCK TAKE-DOWN SPORTING RIFLE with swamped octagonal sighted turn-off barrel signed and dated at the breech, rifled with eight grooves and fitted with pan and steel, bright steel lock with chiselled details and full cock position only, highly figured walnut butt (wormed, minor repairs) with cheek-piece, plain iron mounts including indented trigger-guard (old repair), set trigger, and sliding barrel release-catch in front of the trigger-guard, the barrel by Matthäus Mätl, dated 1637, the remainder third quarter of the 17th Century

Details
A VERY RARE AUSTRIAN BACK-ACTION MIQUELET-LOCK TAKE-DOWN SPORTING RIFLE with swamped octagonal sighted turn-off barrel signed and dated at the breech, rifled with eight grooves and fitted with pan and steel, bright steel lock with chiselled details and full cock position only, highly figured walnut butt (wormed, minor repairs) with cheek-piece, plain iron mounts including indented trigger-guard (old repair), set trigger, and sliding barrel release-catch in front of the trigger-guard, the barrel by Matthäus Mätl, dated 1637, the remainder third quarter of the 17th Century
33 3/8in. barrel [E.238, S.13]

Lot Essay

Matthäus Mätl of Linz is first recorded in 1633

See Hans Schedelmann, Die großen Büchsenmacher, p. 121

The rifle was presumably made with one or more interchangeable barrels. The lock mechanism is similar to those found on break-action breech-loading rifles by Michael Gull of Vienna

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