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Lot Essay
This is the single-shot version of the Kolbe repeating air guns of which an example was sold from the W. Keith Neal Collection in these Rooms, 9 November 2000, lot 24 (£8,460 including premium)
The inscription on the side-plate is an incomplete quotation from Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1, lines 62-63:
'Imposuit, reqemque dedit, qui foedere certo
Et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas'
A literal translation would be:
'And he (Jove) imposed a King (Aeolus), who knew how to rule wisely, firmly, as well as moderately, on the grounds of a secure treaty'
According to Neal and Back, loc.cit, a tradition going back as far as 1817 maintains that this gun belonged to King George II, to whom the inscription may refer
The finest Kolbe air gun, doubtless his masterpiece, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. M. 494-1894), and is also associated with the Monarch
For details of the two Kolbes see H.L. Blackmore, 'Who was Kolbe?', J.A.A.S., vol. XIV, no. 2 (September 1992), pp. 41-63
See also lot 204
The inscription on the side-plate is an incomplete quotation from Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1, lines 62-63:
'Imposuit, reqemque dedit, qui foedere certo
Et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas'
A literal translation would be:
'And he (Jove) imposed a King (Aeolus), who knew how to rule wisely, firmly, as well as moderately, on the grounds of a secure treaty'
According to Neal and Back, loc.cit, a tradition going back as far as 1817 maintains that this gun belonged to King George II, to whom the inscription may refer
The finest Kolbe air gun, doubtless his masterpiece, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. M. 494-1894), and is also associated with the Monarch
For details of the two Kolbes see H.L. Blackmore, 'Who was Kolbe?', J.A.A.S., vol. XIV, no. 2 (September 1992), pp. 41-63
See also lot 204