Internationale Orden & Militaria - A82

| 235 Emperor Ferdinand III of Austria – a deluxe wheellock rifle with silver and mother-of-pearl inlays, “Master of the Animal-Head Scroll”, Vienna, circa 1650 Octagonal barrel with eight-groove rifled bore in 12.5 mm calibre, dovetailed silver front sight, double folding rear sight and gold-lined vent hole. The upper side of the barrel decorated with figures and orna- ments inlaid in three-dimensional and engraved silver on a matt ground extending to the muzzle. Iron wheellock with semi-internal wheel, lavishly decorated with silver inlays en suite to the barrel. Double set trigger with shortened firing pin. Ebonised wooden full stock copiously covered with animals and tendrils carved in low relief and decorated with engraved mother-of-pearl inlays, the bone tip with engraved squirrel. On the cheek rest double-headed eagle inlaid in mother-of- pearl and flanked by two unicorns. Engraved iron trigger guard. Later wooden ramrod with bone tip, underneath the cheek a small flaw in the mother of pearl. Patch box holders are missing. An extremely elaborated crafted deluxe rifle of courtly quality. Length 110.5 cm. For the Master of the Animal-Head Scroll cf . J.F. Hayward, “The Art of the Gunmaker”, vol. 1, p. 137/138. An almost identical wheellock rifle, owned by a prince bishop of Eichstaett, was acquisitioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2018 (Accession Number 2018.103). 254205 II € 46.000