AN EXTREMELY RARE WHEEL-LOCK SPORTING CARBINE, THE BARREL ENCASED IN GLASS, with inner iron barrel lined with brass and rifled with eight grooves, and bottle-green outer tube secured by a stepped iron housing at breech and a turned iron cap at the muzzle, and covered by a brass ferrule at the breech and muzzle, each ferrule engraved with flowers, berries and foliage and engraved with the maker's name and date respectively, the muzzle secured to the fore-end by a revolving brass washer which also acts as the fore-sight, the breech with an iron washer incorporating the back-sight, and plain iron tang, flat lock with enclosed wheel and flush-fitting cock, engraved en suite with the brass barrel-ferrules and with a bird on the tail and monster-heads on the cock (jaw screw broken), fruitwood full stock with fluted fore-end, the butt carved in relief with panels of flowers, foliage and berries involving a bird on the patch-box cover and opposite the lock, dark horn butt-plate with iron button, indented iron trigger-guard, set trigger, and narrow brass ramrod-pipe (ramrod missing), by Johan (sic) Gsell, Schleiz, dated 168821in. barrel [E.206, S.8]

AN EXTREMELY RARE WHEEL-LOCK SPORTING CARBINE, THE BARREL ENCASED IN GLASS, with inner iron barrel lined with brass and rifled with eight grooves, and bottle-green outer tube secured by a stepped iron housing at breech and a turned iron cap at the muzzle, and covered by a brass ferrule at the breech and muzzle, each ferrule engraved with flowers, berries and foliage and engraved with the maker's name and date respectively, the muzzle secured to the fore-end by a revolving brass washer which also acts as the fore-sight, the breech with an iron washer incorporating the back-sight, and plain iron tang, flat lock with enclosed wheel and flush-fitting cock, engraved en suite with the brass barrel-ferrules and with a bird on the tail and monster-heads on the cock (jaw screw broken), fruitwood full stock with fluted fore-end, the butt carved in relief with panels of flowers, foliage and berries involving a bird on the patch-box cover and opposite the lock, dark horn butt-plate with iron button, indented iron trigger-guard, set trigger, and narrow brass ramrod-pipe (ramrod missing), by Johan (sic) Gsell, Schleiz, dated 1688 21in. barrel [E.206, S.8]

Details

AN EXTREMELY RARE WHEEL-LOCK SPORTING CARBINE, THE BARREL ENCASED IN GLASS, with inner iron barrel lined with brass and rifled with eight grooves, and bottle-green outer tube secured by a stepped iron housing at breech and a turned iron cap at the muzzle, and covered by a brass ferrule at the breech and muzzle, each ferrule engraved with flowers, berries and foliage and engraved with the maker's name and date respectively, the muzzle secured to the fore-end by a revolving brass washer which also acts as the fore-sight, the breech with an iron washer incorporating the back-sight, and plain iron tang, flat lock with enclosed wheel and flush-fitting cock, engraved en suite with the brass barrel-ferrules and with a bird on the tail and monster-heads on the cock (jaw screw broken), fruitwood full stock with fluted fore-end, the butt carved in relief with panels of flowers, foliage and berries involving a bird on the patch-box cover and opposite the lock, dark horn butt-plate with iron button, indented iron trigger-guard, set trigger, and narrow brass ramrod-pipe (ramrod missing), by Johan (sic) Gsell, Schleiz, dated 1688
21in. barrel [E.206, S.8]

Literature

Ehrenthal, plate V
Ehrenthal, 'Radschlossbüchse mit Laufmantel von Glas', pp. 331-2
Hoff, 'Die Waffensammlung in Schloß Dyck', p. 134
'Feuerwaffen I, pp. 29-30

Lot Essay

Only one other such firearm is recorded, by the same maker, dated 1667, and now retaining only a fragment of its glass. This gun, in the old Waldstein family armoury near Prague, bears an inscription explaining that Gsell had invented it because his master (Herr), 'laughing', had asked whether one could also shoot out of glass. It has also been suggested that the glass, being a poor heat conductor, allowed for a rapid succession of shots

Johann Gsell was a member of the Gsell family of Arzberg in Bavaria. The son of Aegidi Gsell, he moved to Schleiz in 1668 where he was appointed 'Reuss-Planischer Bedienter und Büchsenmacher'

The present carbine was probably presented to Altgraf Franz Ernst (1659-1727) by Reichsgraf Heinrich I von Reuß-Schleiz

More from Arms & Armour

View All