‡A RARE CASED 48-BORE GIRANDONI SYSTEM REPEATING AIR RIFLE FINISHED BY MORTIMER, 21 ST. JAMES'S STREET, LONDON, NO. 490, CIRCA 1815 with octagonal sighted barrel signed in full along the top and rifled with twelve grooves, the breech with characteristic sprung horizontal sliding primer fed by a brass tubular magazine on the right, the latter with hinged iron cover, flat bevelled lock fitted with engraved cocking lever, figured fore-end incised with a linear frame around the rear ramrod-pipe, leather-covered iron butt reservoir of tapering truncated conical form (covering with some damage and losses), border-engraved brass mounts including side-plate decorated with foliage, trigger-guard with a flowerhead on the bow and pineapple finial, rear ramrod-pipe en suite, and fore-end cap, and wooden ramrod: in its original oak case, complete with a spare reservoir numbered en suite, and the case lid with trade label of Mortimer & Son for circa 1811-18 80.3 cm; 31 5/8 in barrel Provenance Dr T. J. Mortimer, sold Bonhams, London, 30th November 2016, lot 367. Literature H. Lee Munson, The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, Rhode Island 1992, pp. 75-77, plates 111-113. For a discussion of Batholomaus Girandoni and his repeating air rifle see Hummelberger and Scharer 1964, pp. 81-95. Another Austrian gun of this type, also finished by Mortimer, was sold Christie's 20th September 1989.