A RARE 40 BORE CASED AIR RIFLE COMPLETE WITH AN ADDITIONAL 32 BORE BARREL FOR SHOT BY SAMUEL HENRY STAUDENMAYER, NO. 1084, CIRCA 1800 with browned twist octagonal sighted rifle barrel cut with seven grooves, case-hardened breech signed in a gold-lined recess, inlaid with a platinum line and numbered beneath, the shot barrel formed in three sections with matching breech also numbered beneath, each fitted with figured walnut fore-end with engraved silver caps and silver barrel bolt escutcheons, signed numbered action, finely engraved with border ornament throughout, a rococo garland on top, a sunburst on the right and a trophy-of-arms with the personification of wind on the left, fitted with engraved cocking lever on the right, indicator and safety-catch on the left, border-engraved trigger-guard decorated with a trophy-of-arms, two rayskin-covered signed steel butt reservoirs each with internally threaded collar, and brass tipped wooden ramrods, almost certainly the original: in original fitted mahogany case lined in green baize, the lid with trade label for 32 Cockspur Street on the inside, and with brass carrying handle (the exterior with scratches and bruising, the interior with areas of wear), and complete with numbered accessories including bullet mould, pump, and wrenches, and with two spare blued springs 73cm; 28 3/4in rifle barrel, 71cm; 28in shot barrel Samuel Henry Staudenmayer, former workman of John Manton, was gunmaker to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. He is the maker of a Girandoni-system air rifle in the Royal Collection at Windsor (inv. no. L 409). Two air weapons by this maker are recorded in the Hanoverian Royal Gunroom, one of which was sold Sotheby's, Hanover, October 2005, lot 868.