Lot Essay
John Willowes was apprenticed to Richard Savage in 1693, and free of the Gunmakers' Company in 1701. Contractor to Ordnance 1705-20, he was active until about 1737
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BY JOHN WILLOWES, LONDON, LONDON BRITANNIA STANDARD SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1711
Details
A Rare 16-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun Re-Stocked As An Officer's Fusil
By John Willowes, London, London Britannia Standard silver hallmarks for 1711
With three-stage sighted barrel with raised mouldings and a raised engraved and chiselled panel at the breech (worn), gold-lined touch-hole, engraved grooved tang, rounded engraved lightly chiselled lock signed on the body of a monster, the inner side stamped with locksmith's mark, moulded figured walnut three-quarter stock carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang (small repair to fore-end), engraved cast silver mounts decorated with foliage, masks, and a monster-head, the butt-plate with a bacchanal and long foliate tang, the escutcheon engraved with the crest of Egerton, silver baluster ramrod-pipes, silver fore-end cap, and silver-tipped ramrod (iron parts with some light pitting), London proof marks, silver maker's mark of John Humphrey
377/8in. (96.2cm.) barrel
By John Willowes, London, London Britannia Standard silver hallmarks for 1711
With three-stage sighted barrel with raised mouldings and a raised engraved and chiselled panel at the breech (worn), gold-lined touch-hole, engraved grooved tang, rounded engraved lightly chiselled lock signed on the body of a monster, the inner side stamped with locksmith's mark, moulded figured walnut three-quarter stock carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang (small repair to fore-end), engraved cast silver mounts decorated with foliage, masks, and a monster-head, the butt-plate with a bacchanal and long foliate tang, the escutcheon engraved with the crest of Egerton, silver baluster ramrod-pipes, silver fore-end cap, and silver-tipped ramrod (iron parts with some light pitting), London proof marks, silver maker's mark of John Humphrey
377/8in. (96.2cm.) barrel
Literature
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, pp. 377-9, plates 156a-d
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.