BY SEBASTIANO ACQUA FRESCA (CECCHI), BARGI, CIRCA 1650-60

Details

A VERY FINE ITALIAN (EMILIAN) SNAPHAUNCE MECHANISM FOR A GUN
By Sebastiano Acqua Fresca (Cecchi), Bargi, circa 1650-60
With shaped flat plate inset with a small panel finely pierced and engraved with a delicate tracery of flowers and foliage against a gold ground (a second plate now missing), the cock chiselled en suite and with a groteque mask in relief at the base of the comb, combined pan and buffer en suite, and chiselled steel and steel-spring, signed on the inside (some wear and pitting, some losses from pierced panels, top jaw and screw replaced)
7½in. (19cm.) (2)

Literature

J.F. Hayward, The Art of the Gunmaker, vol. II, p. 139

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

The Acqua Fresca family of gunsmiths was responsible for some of the most artistically refined firearms ever produced. Sebastiano (1619-1692) was the father of the most famous of them, Matteo, the maker of the exquisite pair of snaphaunce pistols of circa 1690-1700 in the R.T. Gwynn Collection
Another very fine Acqua Fresca lock (dated 1679) is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 33104, Rogers Fund, 1933)

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