BY SIKES (SYKES), SHEFFIELD, CIRCA 1775

Details

A Fine 28-Bore Flintlock Sporting Gun Made For A Boy
By Sikes (Sykes), Sheffield, circa 1775
With rebrowned three-stage barrel with silver fore-sight, the breech octagonal then polygonal, engraved 'Sheffield' on the top flat, struck with gold-lined proof marks and barrel-forger's mark, and engraved with a band of beadwork at the rear, grooved tang finely cut with rococo decoration on a stippled ground, signed flat bevelled lock with stepped tail, the cock engraved with foliage on a matted ground, figured walnut half-stock inlaid with rococo designs in silver wire around the barrel tang and with engraved iron fore-end cap, chequered grip with a circle in the centre of each diamond, cut steel mounts of unusual design involving five acorn finials and including engraved trigger-guard retaining much original blued finish, border engraved silver escutcheon, and original horn-tipped wooden ramrod, London proof marks
32¾in. (83.2cm.) barrel

Provenance

W. Dickie

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, p. 117, plates 449-451

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

The Sykes family of Sheffield is today better known for the production of powder-flasks, but Robert Sykes is recorded as a gunmaker at Waingate, 1774-1786. Neal and Back attribute the present gun to Thomas Sikes

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