A GERMAN OR AUSTRIAN SPORTING CROSSBOW with robust steel bow entirely covered in vellum painted on each side with indented and nebulé designs in red, white and black paint, the colours counterchanged, original retaining cords and string of twisted cord, the former with original orange woollen tassels, wooden tiller swelling towards the middle and veneered with panels of staghorn, the underneath with two longitudinal lines of marquetry made up of light and dark wood, the sides veneered with panels of translucent horn decorated with a fishscale design, bone nut retained by original cords, small iron stirrup, lugs for cranequin, trigger-lever, swivel safety-catch, and folding set trigger (replaced, fore-sight later), late 16th Century