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A Very Rare 23-Bore Bohemian Flintlock Sporting Gun With Concealed Lock Mechanism

BY WENZEL MORAWEK IN JENIKAU, LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A Very Rare 23-Bore Bohemian Flintlock Sporting Gun With Concealed Lock Mechanism
By Wenzel Morawek In Jenikau, late 18th Century
With blued two-stage barrel, the forward section sixteen-sided and with silver spider fore-sight, the rear section octagonal changing to sixteen-sided, housing the cock, signed on the top flat, engraved with a laurel wreath, and with gold-lined maker's stamp (Neue Støckel 7928) surmounted by three small gold-lined crosses in Madrid style, the steel closing flush with the barrel when the action is cocked, shaped tang engraved with the number '1', figured walnut full stock (some bruising) carved in relief with flowers and foliage, chequered grip, shaped iron mounts, cheek-piece, iron cocking lever inside the trigger-guard, iron sling mounts, horn fore-end cap, and later horn-tipped ramrod
33¼in. (84.4cm.) barrel

Literature

D.R. Baxter, 'Concealed Flintlock Firearms', J.A.A.S., vol. 5, no. 11 (September 1967), pp. 407, 419

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Over thirty examples of this type of concealed flintlock mechanism are known, a number of them made by the Morawek brothers, Ferdinand and Wenzel. The latter died in 1795, and is known to have worked with his brother until 1791. The finest recorded example of this system is a German tortoiseshell-veneered double sporting gun in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (inv. no. 13/589), described and illustrated in J.F. Hayward, The Art of the Gunmaker, vol. II, p. 100, plates 43 b, c

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