Lot 4872

Description

Slender, slightly tapered barrel, the original bluing abraded in places. Octagonal and finely fluted at the breech, extending into round after a short decorative band with offset barrel rib. Smooth bore in 15.5 mm calibre. The muzzle with two decorative gold-inlaid bands, the rear sight surrounded by finely engraved decorative tendrils inlaid in gold. Gold-plated and engraved embellishment at the root of the barrel. The lock with delicately chased décor on a chiselled gold background. Depiction of the blacksmith Vulcan and a seated boy. The figure of a heron on the cock. Finely engraved signature "Laroche à Paris" behind the cock. The finely carved full stock in beautifully grained walnut, attached in old times at the first ramrod sleeve. The butt opulently decorated with silver wire inlays, a vacant iron thumb plate. Ostentatious iron furniture with three-dimensional, chiselled embellishment on a gold background. Finely fluted iron ramrod pipes on the underside, original wooden ramrod with iron tip and wad hook. Length 146.5 cm. Jean-Baptiste Laroche is documented as a gunsmith in Paris from 1740 to 1769 and Arquebusier du Roi. In 1743, he was granted the royal "Brevet du Logement" in the Louvre, where he lived until his death. A pair of flintlock pistols that he was commissioned to make for Louis XV forms part of the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (Accession Number 2243&A-1855). Another pistol can be found in the Wallace Collection in London. A flintlock shotgun is in the holdings of the Gatchina arsenal in St. Petersburg, illustrated in: Gatchina Arsenal, One hundred items from the collection of the Russian Emperors, St. Petersburg, 2001, p. 95 ff.

Condition: II Questions about the lot?