BY LEOPOLD BECHER, CARLSBAD, CIRCA 1730

Details

A Fine 23-Bore Bohemian Flintlock Fowling-Piece
By Leopold Becher, Carlsbad, circa 1730
With blued two-stage barrel with turned girdle and brass spider fore-sight, the octagonal breech with two deeply struck gold-lined marks (similar to Neue Støckel 36, 38) surmounted by four small decorative marks, tang engraved with strapwork, signed flat bevelled lock engraved with scrolling foliage inhabited by a bird and a monster-head and with blued parts inside and out, moulded figured walnut half-stock carved in relief with strapwork and foliage, fire-gilt brass mounts finely cast and chased in relief with Régence ornament involving masks and Classical figures, all against a punched ground, the side-plate with Diana in her chariot within a wooded landscape accompanied by putti and a hound, the butt-plate engraved 'No. 43', the trigger-guard with a huntsman in contemporary attire sounding a cor de chasse, blued trigger and trigger-plate, horn fore-end cap, and horn-tipped ramrod, in very fine condition with nearly all its original finish throughout
39¾in. (101cm.) barrel

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Leopold Becher (recorded circa 1725-50) was undoubtably the most distinguished of the Carlsbad gunmakers. His work is well represented in the major international collections including the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich, the former imperial collection in Vienna, the Danish royal collection in Copenhagen, the Musée Royal de l'Armée in Brussels, and the ancestral Gewehrkammern of the Princes Schwarzenberg and Lobkowitz. He was court gunmaker to Duke Johann Georg Christian Lobkowitz at Raudnitz in 1726-7

This gun was the late owner's first purchase from Jagdschloß Kranichstein

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