A 21-BORE AUSTRIAN FLINTLOCK SPORTING GUN WITH FINELY CAST GILT-BRASS MOUNTS, VIENNA OR SALZBURG, CIRCA 1730 with etched twist barrel formed with sighting flat and stepped moulded breech, silver "spider" fore-sight, bevelled lock chiselled with a two-part boar-hunting scene in low relief on a punched matted ground, the cock, its top jaw and the steel each chiselled en rocailles, carved moulded figured walnut full stock decorated en suite with rococo ornament about the barrel tang, the butt with raised cheek-piece decorated with a star formed of inlaid contrasting wood segments, carved in relief with scrolls and acanthus flourishes at both ends and about the base of the comb, with full gilt-brass mounts finely cast in low relief with a series of elaborate rococo vignettes, comprising butt-plate decorated with the figure of a lady huntress standing in contemporary hunting dress beneath an exotic baldacchino, solid side-plate decorated with a landscape vignette involving hunting dogs and shot game within a scrollwork frame suspending a demon mask, trigger-guard finial cast in the form of a further baldaccino, involving a sportsman in contemporary dress within a vignette on the bow, decorated with a demon mask on the finger-spur, and with three faceted ramrod-pipes (one side-nail, the fore-end cap and the ramrod each missing, the stock cracked about the full area surrounding the barrel tang) 96.5 cm; 38 in barrel The etched twist barrel is a fashionable legacy of the Ottoman style of barrelmaking popularised in Austria and Southern Germany by the firearms included among the booty of the Austro-Turkish Wars of 1683-99 and 1716-18. Mounts of this high quality are characteristic of the luxury firearms produced by the leading gunmakers in Vienna and Salzburg within the first half of the 18th century. The highly elaborate portrayal on the butt-plate of the figure of a lady huntress is quite possibly a reference to the Empress Amalia, consort of the Emperor Joseph I. A contemporary account of a shoot held especially for the ladies of the Viennese Court describes the Empress finely dressed and shooting from a throne at the end of a beautiful alley in her garden; see Hayward Vol. II 1963, p.119-20.
A 21-BORE AUSTRIAN FLINTLOCK SPORTING GUN WITH FINELY CAST GILT-BRASS MOUNTS, VIENNA OR SALZBURG, CIRCA 1730 with etched twist barrel formed with sighting flat and stepped moulded breech, silver "spider" fore-sight, bevelled lock chiselled with a two-part boar-hunting scene in low relief on a punched matted ground, the cock, its top jaw and the steel each chiselled en rocailles, carved moulded figured walnut full stock decorated en suite with rococo ornament about the barrel tang, the butt with raised cheek-piece decorated with a star formed of inlaid contrasting wood segments, carved in relief with scrolls and acanthus flourishes at both ends and about the base of the comb, with full gilt-brass mounts finely cast in low relief with a series of elaborate rococo vignettes, comprising butt-plate decorated with the figure of a lady huntress standing in contemporary hunting dress beneath an exotic baldacchino, solid side-plate decorated with a landscape vignette involving hunting dogs and shot game within a scrollwork frame suspending a demon mask, trigger-guard finial cast in the form of a further baldaccino, involving a sportsman in contemporary dress within a vignette on the bow, decorated with a demon mask on the finger-spur, and with three faceted ramrod-pipes (one side-nail, the fore-end cap and the ramrod each missing, the stock cracked about the full area surrounding the barrel tang) 96.5 cm; 38 in barrel The etched twist barrel is a fashionable legacy of the Ottoman style of barrelmaking popularised in Austria and Southern Germany by the firearms included among the booty of the Austro-Turkish Wars of 1683-99 and 1716-18. Mounts of this high quality are characteristic of the luxury firearms produced by the leading gunmakers in Vienna and Salzburg within the first half of the 18th century. The highly elaborate portrayal on the butt-plate of the figure of a lady huntress is quite possibly a reference to the Empress Amalia, consort of the Emperor Joseph I. A contemporary account of a shoot held especially for the ladies of the Viennese Court describes the Empress finely dressed and shooting from a throne at the end of a beautiful alley in her garden; see Hayward Vol. II 1963, p.119-20.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
