Lot 156
156
A RARE CASED 140-BORE SILVER-MOUNTED AIR RIFLE
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
A RARE CASED 140-BORE SILVER-MOUNTED AIR RIFLE

BY EDWARD BATE, LONDON, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1777

Details
A RARE CASED 140-BORE SILVER-MOUNTED AIR RIFLE
By Edward Bate, London, London silver hallmarks for 1777
With swamped two-stage sighted polygroove rifled barrel with chiselled girdle, the octagonal breech section with two gold lines at the rear and signed in gold between gold-inlaid scrollwork and swags, shaped tang finely cut flowers and foliage in low relief, large flat lock finely cut in low relief with flowers, foliage, and rocailles, and signed within a gold oval and with moulded border (cocking lever retaining screw a working replacement, thumbpiece detached), figured walnut half-stock (some bruising) carved in relief with shells at the barrel tang, skeleton butt, chequered grip and fore-end with a dimple in the centre of each diamond, finely engraved silver mounts including cut-out butt-plate, two silver escutcheons, one engraved with owner's initials 'TJ' and the other with owner's crest and coronet (the former a griffin's head), engraved silver barrel-bolt escutcheons, silver ramrod-pipes on a silver rib, and horn ramrod (iron parts with some rust-staining and scattered surface pitting, one barrel-bolt missing): in original fitted case (some losses and damage inside and out) covered with tooled leather and lined with green baize and printed paper, containing iron pump with wooden handles, iron spherical reservoir (the second missing), and brass mould for ten balls, the lid with brass carrying handle of Chippendale form, silversmith's mark of John King
31½in. (80cm.) barrel
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

Lot Essay

Cf. an air rifle with the signature of George Wallis of Hull, made for William Constable of Burton Constable Hall in c. 1770, described and illustrated in W. Keith Neal & D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, pp. 89, 94-95, plate 263. The case is of a very early type, similar to that of a cased pair of Wogdon duelling pistols formerly in the Clay P. Bedford Collection (inv. no. 1167). See The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Firearms of Great Britain and Ireland from the collection of Clay P. Bedford, pp. 74-75

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