A FINE SILVER VICTORIAN SHOOTING TROPHY

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SELECTED FIREARMS FROM THE EMIL ROSNER COLLECTION I first met Emil about twenty years ago. I had recently started as a Junior Assistant in Christie's Sporting Gun Department and knew, really, almost nothing about the subject that would become a world to me. Emil was with my then mentor, Christopher Brunker, in the Gun Room and I can remember, as if it were yesterday, their quiet, esoteric conversation about the gun in front of them. Christopher was, and still is, perhaps, the greatest authority in this field and he was listening with great concentration to what Emil had to say. I became aware that a very interesting exchange of ideas was taking place in front of me - Christopher Brunker - the man who had modernized single-handedly the world of Sporting Gun auctions conversing with Emil Rosner - the great master of the development of the breech-loading gun. As far as Emil was concerned, I was struck by his calm self-effacing manner and the quiet way in which he put his ideas and enthusiasms forward. In the time I knew him, he was to remain unchanged in this respect and even in his last two, very difficult years, it became apparent that he would not change. He died on April 29th last year. Emil Rosner was born in Vienna in 1921 and lived his early life in Piestany, a spa town in Czechoslovakia where his father was a doctor. His instinctive vocation was in engineering, a subject which he studied in Brno and later, during the war, as a member of the Free Czech army, he found himself with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan as a refrigeration engineer. He subsequently settled in London, took British nationality and, true to his training, started his own motor company - an occupation which continued until he died. He loved cars and their competitive use and he knew many of the very interesting characters in 1950's London who were involved in British racing and engineering excellence. Emil loved Gilbern cars and was both founder and president of the Gilbern Owner's Club for the last thirty years. He competed with his own Invader Mark 2 at numerous hill-climbs in the 1970's including Wiscombe Park and Valence School and thirved, as he did with his shooting, on the keen but friendly competitiveness of the sport. Emil's love of guns was born with him and became a passionate interest. He was an excellent pistol shot of Olympic standard and he shot regularly at Marylebone, Ham, Petersham and the Kensington Rifle and Pistol Clubs. He also loved his game shooting, especially with the Wedmore Farmers' Preserving Club and at his two syndicate shoots in Wiltshire. He was helped and encouraged in all his pursuits by Paddy to whom he was married for over twenty years. As far as his Collection of guns is concerned, of which this second selection is a small but representative group, Emil was a lover of Patents - and especially those patents and un-registered designs which gradually changed the British sporting gun from its percussion predecessors to the perfected 'hammerless' designs of the late-nineteenth century. The following lots include transitional percussion/breech-loading guns with their base-fire and pin-fire cousins and there is a group of later designs which include underlever, toplever and sidelever variants. There are also a number of unusual hammerless guns. On a personal note, I am deeply sorry that Emil did not live long enough to enjoy the cataloguing of his Collection but I am sure that he would approve of the subsequent fledgling collections that will begin with the dispersal of his life work, which will take place over the following year. Christopher Austyn Postscript A number of Rosner guns were illustrated in Crudgington & Baker's The British Shotgun Volumes I & II

Details

A FINE SILVER VICTORIAN SHOOTING TROPHY
'Presented by Edward Paton Gun Maker Perth For Annual Competition'
With a carved Scottish live-pigeon shooting scene, the reverse engraved with the names of the winners from 1864 to 1875, surmounted by a stand of muskets above the central pigeon motif, with a suspension-ring

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price

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