THE BARRELS BY DAIRE, CHARLEVILLE, CIRCA 1800-10, STOCKED AND MOUNTED BY TANNER, HERZBERG, CIRCA 1820

The monogram on the barrels indicates the original gun by Daire was owned by the future George IV, a well-known collector of firearms and swords, although the crown is that of a more junior prince than the Prince of Wales. The present Lot was not the only example of a gun by Daire, a little known French maker, in the ownership of a member of the British Royal family. A silver-mounted double gun by him was sold in these Rooms on 27 March 1827 as part of the collection of the late Duke of York (Lot 72). It is likely that the gun was made during one of the brief periods of peace between France and Great Britain, such as that which followed the 1802 Treaty of Amiens, it being accepted that Daire was active in the early 19th century. Restocked and fully remounted in Hanover in circa 1820 to the most advanced form of flintlock, the escutcheon inlaid in the stock is engraved with the crest of a junior prince. The vendor informs us that his great-grandfather purchased the gun in London before the First World War and that it was described at the time as having belonged to the Duke of Cambridge, seventh son of George III. The Duke served as Viceroy of the Kingdom of Hanover between 1816 and 1837 thus placing him in Hanover at the time Tanner rebuilt this gun around an earlier pair of barrels. It is entirely plausible that the Daire gun had been gifted to Cambridge by his elder brother, both being keen sportsmen.