BY WILLIAM BAILES, LONDON, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1763

Details

A 16-Bore Silver-Mounted Flintlock Sporting Gun
By William Bailes, London, London silver hallmarks for 1763
With rebrowned two-stage barrel with turned girdle and silver spider fore-sight, signed octagonal breech section engraved with a band of beadwork at the rear and with gold-lined touch-hole, finely engraved grooved tang, signed large flat lock retained by two screws and with moulded border, roller, engraved safety-catch and tail, figured walnut half-stock (minor bruising, cracked at the rear side-nail, chipped above and in front of the lock) carved in relief with a shell behind the barrel tang, chequered grip with a dot in the centre of each diamond, cast and chased silver butt-plate and trigger-guard each decorated with rococo designs, the trigger-guard with a martial trophy in relief on the bow and a bouquet of flowers and foliage on the finial, silver rear ramrod-pipe (replaced), horn fore-end cap, and later horn-tipped ramrod (iron parts with some scattered minor pitting), London proof marks and Foreigner's mark, silver maker's mark JA
38 5/8in. (98.8cm.) barrel

Provenance

The Marquess of Zetland, Aske, Nr. Richmond, Yorkshire (anon. sale, Sotheby & Co., London, 20 December 1977, lot 235 - £990 including premium, to Neal)

Literature

W. Keith Neal and D.H.L. Back, Messrs Griffin & Tow and W. Bailes, pp. 176-178, plates 83 a-d

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Almost certainly made for Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt. (d. 1781), "The Nabob of the North", patron of Robert Adam, Thomas Chippendale, Pierre Langlois and Johann Zoffany
William Bailes (circa 1700-1766) was at Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury from 1748 until his death. He is credited by Sir Thomas Frankland (in Cautions to Young Sportsmen) with the invention of the under-rib as fitted to the barrel of this gun

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