Lot 52
52
An Unusual 10-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more
An Unusual 10-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun

BY E. COOMBS, BATH, THE LOCK BY THWAITS, BATH, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1746

Details
An Unusual 10-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun
By E. Coombs, Bath, the lock by Thwaits, Bath, London silver hallmarks for 1746
With swamped barrel signed on the raised top flat of the breech and chiselled in relief with scallop-shells, flower-heads, and foliage, the rear of the breech with an engraved band of beadwork and acanthus foliage (worn), silver satyr-mask fore-sight, gold-lined touch-hole, engraved grooved tang, flat bevelled lock signed within rococo ribbons and with stepped tail, gold-lined pan, and large anti-friction link attached to the tail of the pan-cover (cock associated), moulded figured walnut full stock (minor defects) carved in relief with shells at the barrel tang and behind the lock, side-plate, and rear ramrod-pipe, full engraved silver mounts cast and chased with foliage, strapwork and scallop-shells, elaborately pierced rococo side-plate, large cast and chased rococo escutcheon engraved with owner's coat-of-arms, and silver-mounted bone ramrod with worm, some of the screw-heads with square slots, the barrel-bolt heads in the form of scallop-shells, London proof marks, silver maker's mark JA
30¼in. (76.8cm.) barrel
Literature
Richard Akehurst, The World of Guns, illustrated on p. 45
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, p. 49, plate 104
Exhibited
The British Sporting Exhibition at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, 14-30 January 1938, cat. no. 11
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The coat-of-arms is that of Walters quartering Robnet, which was used by the family of Walters of Batheaston, near Bath. The original owner was probably Henry Walters (1667-1753), who was High Sheriff of Somersetshire in 1715
For the three types of anti-friction systems, of which that on the present gun is believed to be the earliest, see W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, op. cit., pp. 48-49

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