Lot Essay
This rifle was made to fire ball (for boar shooting), as well as a bullet (for roedeer ect.)
Details
AN UNUSUAL SAXON 16-BORE WHEEL-LOCK SPORTING RIFLE
BY HANS CASPAR ESCHER, LEIPZIG, CIRCA 1665
With swamped octagonal sighted barrel stamped at the breech with maker's mark (Neue Støckel 288) and fitted with removeable 80-bore six-groove sleeve threaded at the breech end, flat lock with internal wheel, engraved with flowers and foliage, integral raised wheel-cover engraved with two addorsed dog-headed monters and pierced with a heart-shaped design, and sliding pan-cover, the cock engraved with an eagle and pierced with a monster, fruitwood full stock with fluted fore-end (ramrod channel chipped), inlaid on the butt with lines enclosing engraved pellets, flowerheads and engraved panels, and on the cheek-piece with two bears eating fruit from a tree, all in white staghorn, indented iron trigger-guard with chiselled finial, set trigger, patch-box containing a later combination spanner and barrel-key and with staghorn cover (small repair) engraved with scrollwork and a running deer, horn butt-plate with button, engraved staghorn fore-end cap (incomplete) and ramrod-pipes, and horn-tipped wooden ramrod (iron parts with light pitting)
24in. barrel
BY HANS CASPAR ESCHER, LEIPZIG, CIRCA 1665
With swamped octagonal sighted barrel stamped at the breech with maker's mark (Neue Støckel 288) and fitted with removeable 80-bore six-groove sleeve threaded at the breech end, flat lock with internal wheel, engraved with flowers and foliage, integral raised wheel-cover engraved with two addorsed dog-headed monters and pierced with a heart-shaped design, and sliding pan-cover, the cock engraved with an eagle and pierced with a monster, fruitwood full stock with fluted fore-end (ramrod channel chipped), inlaid on the butt with lines enclosing engraved pellets, flowerheads and engraved panels, and on the cheek-piece with two bears eating fruit from a tree, all in white staghorn, indented iron trigger-guard with chiselled finial, set trigger, patch-box containing a later combination spanner and barrel-key and with staghorn cover (small repair) engraved with scrollwork and a running deer, horn butt-plate with button, engraved staghorn fore-end cap (incomplete) and ramrod-pipes, and horn-tipped wooden ramrod (iron parts with light pitting)
24in. barrel
Provenance
Alfred Cox, Glendoick, Perthshire