SCHWÄBISCH-GMÜND, CIRCA 1680

Johann Michael Maucher (1645-1701) was one of the most famous South German carvers and gunstockers of the seventeenth century. He was born into a family of wood, ivory and amber carvers in Schwäbisch-Gmünd and worked there until 1688. He moved to Augsburg, then to Würzburg in about 1693, where he remained until his death Maucher is known to have made objects of all kinds in ivory, wood and stone, including powder-flasks, figures and several large ewers and basins. Like his firearms such objects were intended for the Kunstkammer, as objects for display rather than for use. His opinion about his status is indicated by the inclusion in his usual signature of 'Sculptor (Bildhauer) and Gunstocker (Büchenschäfter)' in that order. He is reported to have presented a richly decorated gun to the Emperor Leopold I in 1688. A still life of 1698-9 by the Dutch artist Dirk Valkenburg in the collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein at Vaduz includes a Maucher rifle which belonged to Prince Adam Andreas von Liechtenstein (1657-1712): the rifle is still in the Princely collections today (inv. no. 859) About thirty firearms stocked by Maucher have survived, nearly all in public collections, and mostly rifles, the largest group being in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich. Two Maucher rifles have been sold in these Rooms in recent years - the first, from the armoury of the Princes zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck, Schloß Dyck, on 15 April 1992, lot 169 (£137,500, at the time the world auction record for a European antique firearm): the second, from the collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, on 8 July 1999, lot 84 (£106,000) Maucher pistols, of which this is a hitherto unrecorded example, are much rarer than the rifles. Other Maucher pistols appear to be restricted to the following: a pair of wheel-locks in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (inv. nos. G 643/4); two pairs of flintlocks in the United States; three flintlocks in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (inv. nos. W 2832/39 and 51/124); and a single flintlock in the Odescalchi Collection, Rome (inv. no. 53). Judging from photographs, it seems likely that the present pistol is the pair to the one in Rome For further information on Maucher, see W. Klein, Johann Michael und Christoph Maucher, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, 1920; idem, 'Die Elfenbeinschnitzer-Familie Maucher von Scwäb. Gmünd', Gmünder Heimatblätter, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, no. 10, October 1933, pp. 137-167, and no. 12, December 1933, pp. 185-195; E. Petrasch, 'Uber einige Jagdwaffen mit Elfenbeinschnitzerei im Badischen Landesmuseum. Marginalien zum Werk des Büchsenschäfters Johann Michael Maucher', Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde, Munich/Berlin, 1960, pp. 11-26; A. Ehmer, Die Maucher, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, 1992