Lot 411
411
A BOHEMIAN SELF-SPANNING WHEEL LOCK RIFLE
A BOHEMIAN SELF-SPANNING WHEEL LOCK RIFLE
A BOHEMIAN SELF-SPANNING WHEEL LOCK RIFLE
2 More
A BOHEMIAN SELF-SPANNING WHEEL LOCK RIFLE
5 More
A BOHEMIAN SELF-SPANNING WHEEL LOCK RIFLE

BY CASPAR NEIREITER OF PRAGUE, LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details
A BOHEMIAN SELF-SPANNING WHEEL LOCK RIFLE
BY CASPAR NEIREITER OF PRAGUE, LATE 17TH CENTURY
With octagonal rifled barrel slightly swamped at the muzzle, brass fore-sight with engraved border and acanthus, maker’s name Caspar Neireiter in Prag within an acanthus border cartouche, fixed rear-sight with one additional folding leaf the finial chased and engraved with an image of Mars, the breech chased in low relief with clouds surrounding figures from Greek mythology including Zeus with a swan, Pegasus, Orion within a hatched field of stars with a dog underneath and the words canis minor, Hercules over an image of Diana Goddess of the hunt and the words Vesper Diana, short tang engraved with acanthus leaf. Polished bright flat lock engraved with classical figures with an architectural setting including possibly Lucretia and crowned man being stabbed by two figures, baluster sculpted pan cover with engraved acanthus finial the top flat portion engraved with three cannon, flash guard engraved with three soldiers with a musket and pikes, pierced and engraved dog with an archer slaying a dragon and swans, flat pierced and engraved wheel cover with a double headed eagle. Fruitwood full stock inlaid with tendrils, stars, engraved plaques of hounds and hares, stags, a hunter with a horn with a hound on the underside large cheekpiece plaque with hunter on horseback chasing a stag and a boar with a landscape, the stock flat incised N5, other scroll engraved border plaques including tang surrounds, ramrod pipes, and fore-end cap, horn patchbox cover with acanthus scroll borders with a central vignette of a lioness and lion flanked by the names Lorentz and Driebel and a rose engraved push button release in the middle. Iron triggerguard indented for fingers with pierced and engraved finials. Adjustable set trigger.
47 ½ in.
The successful bidder will be responsible for arranging their own shipments or collecting in-person and will be responsible for applicable New York taxes.
Provenance
William Randolph Hearst.
With Leopold Blumka, New York.
Acquired by Russell Barnett Aitken from the above.
Literature
An Inventory of the William Randolph Hearst Collection of Arms and Armor, St. Donat’s Castle, Wales, no. A-143
Russell Barnett Aitken, 'The Investment You Can Hang on the Wall', True Magazine, September 1963, p. 63 (illustrated)

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Elizabeth Seigel
Elizabeth Seigel Vice President, Specialist, Head of Private and Iconic Collections

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Lot Essay

Caspar Neireiter (Bohemia, Prague, 1667–ca. 1730) is recorded as a purveyor to the Hapsburg Court. With its elaborate ornament and mythological scenes and complex self-spanning mechanism, this rifle is a tour de force displaying the gunmaker’s artistic and mechanical skill. The name on the patch box cover, Lorentz Dreibel, is presumably that of the stock maker or decorator, hitherto unrecorded. There is a pair of wheellock rifles made for Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705) by Neireiter housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art accession no. 50.203.1, .2.

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