ITALIAN, PROBABLY LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A VERY RARE ALL-STEEL "ASSASSIN'S" CROSSBOW
Italian, probably late 17th Century
With robust gilt bow etched with foliated scrollwork on a dotted ground and retaining its string, hollow tiller with gold-damascened decoration in 16th-century style, containing the spanning mechanism and fitted with a hood incised with the arms of Bavaria under a royal crown, etched and gilt lever trigger and belt hook, and chiselled and gilt wing nut at the rear, the decoration of later date (safety-catch missing)
9¾in. (24.8cm.) spanned

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Similar crossbows are to be found in the Royal Armoury, Turin (inv. no. L10, see G. Bertolotto et al., L' Armeria Reale di Torino, no. 268) and in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice (inv. no. F9, see Umberto Franzoi, L' Armeria del Palazzo Ducale a Venezia, no. 376)

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