BY GEORGE HERIOT, EDINBURGH, CIRCA 1775

細節

A Fine 18-Bore Scottish Flintlock Sporting Rifle
By George Heriot, Edinburgh, circa 1775
With heavy Turkish swamped etched twist barrel cut with seven grooves and with encrusted gold decoration throughout its length, and with a raised gold-encrusted panel at the rear of the breech in front of an applied stepped silver ramp incorporating a slotted back-sight, silver bead fore-sight, iron tang with applied engraved silver cover, signed flat bevelled lock engraved with foliage and with safety-catch (chipped) and stepped tail, figured walnut full stock (minor repairs) finely carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang, chequered grip with a circle in the centre of each diamond, engraved iron mounts, trigger-guard and tail-pipe each with acorn finial, four barrel-bolts, and wooden ramrod
55¾in. (141.6cm.) barrel

來源

The Hon. Mrs M.K. Bruce, sold in these Rooms, 6 March 1974, lot 151 (600 gns. to Neal)

注意事項

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

拍品專文

Almost certainly made for James ("Abyssinian") Bruce of Kinnaird (1730-1794), the famous African explorer, who claimed to have found the source of the Nile. Bruce (an athletic figure who stood six feet four) was one of the first to put Africa on the map with his extensive travels in Abyssinia, related in his Travels to discover the Sources of the Nile in the Years 1768-1773, published in five volumes in 1790. In fact he had not found the source of the Nile, and had only reached the spring of its main tributary, the Blue Nile

Bruce's extravagent tales of the interior were met with some scepticism by polite society on his return to London in 1794, and after a short period of some celebrity, he returned to his estate in Stirlingshire. He shot, entertained visitors, played with his children, and meditated on his past adventures

See Alan Morehead, The Blue Nile, London, 1964; Miles Bredin, The Pale Abyssinian, London, 2000