Wheel-lock gun with ramrod

Wheel-lock gun, the barrel chiselled along its entire length with a formal pattern of flowers and foliage encrusted with silver.

Lock with external wheel which is covered by a steel plate. This latter, together with the surface of the lock-plate, is decorated en suite with the barrel; the cock has a curved cocking spur ending in a knob.

Stock of German fashion of Italian walnut, inlaid with scrolled cartouches, soldiers, squirrels, etc., of engraved antler; on the near side is a seated figure of Justice in the costume of the early 17th century, and underneath is Minerva. The sliding cover of the butt-trap is of antler engraved with a figure of Fortune. On the stock near the trigger is stamped the number 695 and on the cheek-piece the number 675, probably old arsenal numbers.

German, about 1610.

Exhibited: Musée Rétrospectif , 1865, No. 1977 (Spitzer).

Provenance: F. Spitzer.

J. F. Hayward examined this gun on a number of occasions and concluded that the barrel was associated and its silver encrusting doubtful; a new fore-end had been fitted; the lock had been decorated to match the barrel at a later date; and the cover of the butt-trap was probably a 19th-century replacement.