A RARE ALSATIAN SNAPLOCK SPORTING RIFLE with octagonal sighted barrel struck at the breech with maker's mark (Neue Støckel 238) and Strasburg mark (Neue Støckel 1633) and rifled with alternating broad and narrow grooves, flat bevelled lock with horizontally working one- position sear, struck on the inside with maker's mark, the outside struck with Strasburg mark and engraved with a boar hunting scene, the tail engraved with fruit and foliage, dog-catch chiselled and engraved as a sea monster, the cock chiselled and engraved with foliage in relief and held by a bolt with internal nut, the head chiselled with a grotesque mask, walnut full stock carved with foliage framing a vacant escutcheon at the barrel tang, and opposite the lock, with a frond terminating in flowerheads and fruit, deep butt with cheek-piece, the latter between two panels of carved foliage involving a griffin and a lion respectively, walnut patch-box cover carved with fronds involving a boar pursued by a hound, iron mounts including butt-plate and indebted trigger-guard, set trigger, horn fore-end cap, and original horn-tipped ramrod, by Samuel Doepfer, Strasburg, circa 1670 29½in. barrel [E.261, S.24]