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A Very Rare 17-Bore Flintlock Double-Lock Single-Trigger Two-Shot Superimposed-Load Sporting Gun

BY T. WALLIS, LONDON, CIRCA 1685

Details

A Very Rare 17-Bore Flintlock Double-Lock Single-Trigger Two-Shot Superimposed-Load Sporting Gun
By T. Wallis, London, circa 1685
With fine earlier Turkish swamped twist barrel in four stages inlaid with brass bands and brass panels of arabesques within silver-inlaid lines, shaped brass-inlaid muzzle with slotted fore-sight, slotted iron standing back-sight, iron tang engraved with a female portrait bust and the owner's initials 'IN', rounded right- and left-hand locks, the latter for the forward charge, each lock signed (the left one in mirror writing) and engraved with foliage and a monster-head, the right cock with dog catch (cock cracked, comb repaired), moulded flame-burnt ash full stock (minor chips) with carved butt of Scottish flavour, raised apron at the barrel tang, brass mounts including flat butt-plate engraved 'N 20', and shaped escutcheon engraved with a portrait bust of a Turk, turned ramrod-pipes, and original brass-capped maple ramrod with worm
34¼in. (87cm.) barrel

Provenance

Shandon Collection (formed by Robert Napier of Glasgow)
Wareing Faulder
Alfred Cox, Glendoick, Perthshire

Literature

D.R. Baxter, Superimposed Load Firearms, pp. 120-1, plate 69
W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1540-1740, pp. 194-5, plates 64a-c

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

The maker is probably Thomas 2 Wallis, free of the Gunmakers' Company in 1681, died 1696

The owner's initials 'IN' are found on other firearms with Scottish connections, among them another superimposed-load gun with a similar butt (Neal and Back, op. cit., pp. 198-200)

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