with browned twist sighted barrel signed in gold letters over the breech and engraved with a star, struck beneath with London proof marks, case-hardened patent breech inlaid with two gold lines, gold-lined vent, engraved case-hardened tang decorated with foliage, engraved case-hardened flush-fitting lock decorated with border ornament, a trophy-of-music on the tail and signed in script, fitted with engraved bolt safety-catch, ‘French’ cock, gold-lined rainproof pan, patent steel with safety vent and inscribed ‘Egg Patent’, blued steel spring with roller, and the inside with much early finish, highly figured walnut half-stock, finely chequered grip, engraved case-hardened steel mounts comprising butt-plate with a retrieving hound on the tang, trigger-plate with pineapple finial, blued trigger-guard with pillar forward terminal and a hound on the bow, blued fore-end cap, vacant gold escutcheon, silver barrel bolt escutcheons, and brass-tipped ramrod with worm, probably the original, and much early finish throughout, 99.5 cm barrel

Provenance

Lord Home of the Hirsel

Christie’s South Kensington, 15th July 1994, lot 104

See footnote to Lot 403.