Lot Essay
The butt is stamped with the number 11 below the two addorsed salmon mark of the Princes of zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck
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DATED 1618
Details
An unusual 25-bore Dutch or Baltic wheel-lock sporting rifle
Dated 1618
With two-stage barrel rifled with ten grooves, with punched and incised decoration on the rectangular breech, open back-sight, and stamped with a maker's mark twice, a standing halberdier (Støckel 550), flat lock with exposed wheel (apparently a working replacement), fruitwood full stock profusely inlaid with horn and brass lines, brass pellets, scrolls and ball-flowers involving brass plaques (one missing) engraved with birds, animals, monsters, on the cheek-piece with a unicorn, opposite the lock with Leda and the swan, and at the ramrod entry with a naked female figure together with the date 1618 and the stockmaker's initials G M L, brass trigger-guard, set trigger, engraved brass ramrod-pipe, fore-end cap and butt-plate, and iron-tipped ramrod
34¾in. (87.7cm.) barrel
Dated 1618
With two-stage barrel rifled with ten grooves, with punched and incised decoration on the rectangular breech, open back-sight, and stamped with a maker's mark twice, a standing halberdier (Støckel 550), flat lock with exposed wheel (apparently a working replacement), fruitwood full stock profusely inlaid with horn and brass lines, brass pellets, scrolls and ball-flowers involving brass plaques (one missing) engraved with birds, animals, monsters, on the cheek-piece with a unicorn, opposite the lock with Leda and the swan, and at the ramrod entry with a naked female figure together with the date 1618 and the stockmaker's initials G M L, brass trigger-guard, set trigger, engraved brass ramrod-pipe, fore-end cap and butt-plate, and iron-tipped ramrod
34¾in. (87.7cm.) barrel
Provenance
The Armoury of Their Serene Highnesses the Princes zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck, Part I, sold in these Rooms 15 April 1992, lot 154
Literature
Max von Ehrenthal, Die Waffensammlung Fürsten Salm-Reifferscheidt zu Schloß Dyck, Leipzig, 1906, No. 119, p. 41