A RARE ENGLISH MATCHLOCK GUN with massive octagonal barrel cut with the English royal motto, 'Diev et Mon Droit' on the top flat and with bands of guilloche ornament, the breech with tubular back-sight chiselled with a bearded male face, engraved tang (worn), the lock decorated en suite with the barrel, the serpentine formed as a double-headed monster, walnut full stock (fore-end incomplete) inlaid with horn foliated scrollwork bearing engraved leaves and flowerheads, horn panels variously engraved with townscapes, a scene of the chase, fruit and portrait busts, all within staghorn lines, and with a scene of the Temptation opposite the lock, fish-tail butt (wormed), and iron trigger-lever (ramrod and some inlay missing), late 16th Century | Christie's

Lot 117

117

A RARE ENGLISH MATCHLOCK GUN with massive octagonal barrel cut with the English royal motto, 'Diev et Mon Droit' on the top flat and with bands of guilloche ornament, the breech with tubular back-sight chiselled with a bearded male face, engraved tang (worn), the lock decorated en suite with the barrel, the serpentine formed as a double-headed monster, walnut full stock (fore-end incomplete) inlaid with horn foliated scrollwork bearing engraved leaves and flowerheads, horn panels variously engraved with townscapes, a scene of the chase, fruit and portrait busts, all within staghorn lines, and with a scene of the Temptation opposite the lock, fish-tail butt (wormed), and iron trigger-lever (ramrod and some inlay missing), late 16th Century

Details

A RARE ENGLISH MATCHLOCK GUN with massive octagonal barrel cut with the English royal motto, 'Diev et Mon Droit' on the top flat and with bands of guilloche ornament, the breech with tubular back-sight chiselled with a bearded male face, engraved tang (worn), the lock decorated en suite with the barrel, the serpentine formed as a double-headed monster, walnut full stock (fore-end incomplete) inlaid with horn foliated scrollwork bearing engraved leaves and flowerheads, horn panels variously engraved with townscapes, a scene of the chase, fruit and portrait busts, all within staghorn lines, and with a scene of the Temptation opposite the lock, fish-tail butt (wormed), and iron trigger-lever (ramrod and some inlay missing), late 16th Century
49½in. barrel

Lot Essay

For a snaphaunce gun with similar inlay in the Livrustkammaren, Stockholm (No. 1349), see Howard L. Blackmore, Guns and Rifles of the World, No. 154

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