AN EXCEPTIONAL CASED 15-BORE D.B. PERCUSSION SPORTING GUN STOCKED ENTIRELY IN RHINOCEROS HORN

細節

AN EXCEPTIONAL CASED 15-BORE D.B. PERCUSSION SPORTING GUN STOCKED ENTIRELY IN RHINOCEROS HORN

BY ALPHONSE CARON, PASSAGE DE L'OPERA, NO. 20, A PARIS, DATED 1836
With etched twist barrels signed in gold within a blued panel on the rib, and each with a gold band at the muzzle and another gold band and a ribbon of dots and foliage in two-colour gold on the blued breech, case-hardened patent breeches gold-inlaid at the centre with an anthemion design and each with gold-inlaid plug in the form of an expanded flower, the underside of the barrels stamped with the barrelsmith's marks (similar to Neue Støckel 187) and signature of Leclere (sic) Frères of Paris, and the under-rib with the serial number 176 and the dated 1836, long case-hardened tang gold-inlaid with a running pattern of stylised husks and with a pigeon, engraved case-hardened back-action locks each signed within a gold ribbon and inlaid with two-colour gold, the right lock with a woodcock in a landscape, and the left with a duck, the hammers en suite and each with a gold-inlaid cock pheasant, chequered grip, case-hardened gold-inlaid iron mounts with a roe-buck on the tang of the butt-plate, a pointer and partridge on the trigger-guard, and a cock pheasant on the rear ramrod-pipe, gold-inlaid barrel-bolt escutcheons, blued triggers, rhinoceros horn ramrod with reversible worm, and nearly all its original finish throughout: in original fitted brass-bound rosewood-veneered case lined in emerald velvet with full accessories mounted in rhinoceros horn (blade of turnscrew replaced) including barrel-plugs, and Boche patent cow-horn flask mounted in gilt-brass, with signed lock, the interior of the lid with stamped and gilt signature, the exterior of the case finely inlaid with brass stringing and interlaced brass scrollwork and foliage inhabited by engraved mother-of-pearl birds and shells, complete with original tooled and gilt green leather outer travelling cover (damaged), and with its original key, and the maker's trade card
29 3/8in. barrels

出版

The British Sporting Exhibition, p. 39

展覽

The British Sporting Exhibition at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, 14-30 January 1938, No. 39
The Game Fair, Longleat House, July 1962

拍品專文

The British Sporting Exhibition was organized by The Field, following the success of the International Hunting Exhibition in Berlin in November 1937. Keith Neal was on hand to demonstrate a display showing the development of firearms, and the weapons on show came from his collection and that of Clifford Hellis of Charles Hellis & Sons Ltd., gunsmiths, of 121 and 123 Edgware Road. See lots 76, 117, and 136, and footnote to lot 191

This is almost certainly the gun exhibited by Caron at the Paris Exposition des Produits de L'Industrie Française in 1839 for which he received an honourable mention for 'Un fusil richement damasquiné, monté sur corne de rhinocéros' (Rapport du Jury Central, vol. II, p. 325)

Sold with an old manuscript letter from H.W.K. Young, Lieut.-Cornet R.N. retired, the seller of the "St. Helena gun" to its purchaser at auction stating that the gun had been in his family "since its presentation", and enquiring whether it was going into a museum or into private hands. The letter congratulates the purchaser "on having no competitors at the sale as I had hoped to get more than my minimum"

This appears to be the only known example of a muzzle-loading firearm stocked entirely in rhinoceros horn, although the same material was used by Alfred Lancaster on a pair of breech-loading guns in the royal Collection at Sandringham (see David Baker, The Royal Gunroom at Sandringham, pp. 81-82)

Caron was the maker of the 'most splendid gun' recorded in Queen Victoria's journal for 9 October 1844, presented by King Louis Philippe of France to Prince Albert (ibid, pp. 24-26)