Lot 27
27
An Extremely Rare 80-Bore Walking-Stick Air Cane
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more
An Extremely Rare 80-Bore Walking-Stick Air Cane

BY JOHN LAWRENCE OR JOHANN GOTTFRIED KOLBE (COLEBY), LONDON, CIRCA 1740

Details
An Extremely Rare 80-Bore Walking-Stick Air Cane
By John Lawrence or Johann Gottfried Kolbe (Coleby), London, circa 1740
Of tapering cylindrical form painted in imitation of malacca (some chips) with signed detachable brass action, wooden handle with brass collar unscrewing to reveal the pump, the air reservoir around the barrel, hinged iron trigger, brass ferrule, and brass-mounted wooden ramrod
39in. (99.1cm.)
Literature
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, p. 472, plates 217 a-c
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Kolbe specialised in air guns (see lot 28), his masterpiece being the magnificent silver-mounted air gun probably made for King George II (Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. M. 494-1894). However, only two of his air canes appear to have survived - the present example, and the gold-mounted cane presented to the Empress Elizabeth of Russia in 1741 (Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, inv. no. OR-401, exhibited at H.M. Tower of London, Treasures of the Moscow Kremlin, 13 June - 13 September 1998, cat. no. 87)
For an account of Kolbe and his weapons see Howard L. Blackmore, 'Who Was Kolbe?', J.A.A.S., vol. XIV, no. 2 (September 1992), p. 49

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