Arquebuse de chasse à rouet avec exceptionnelle... - Lot 146 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Arquebuse de chasse à rouet avec exceptionnelle monture finement incrustée de corne de cerf et d'ivoire, Allemagne ou Bohême, datée 1667. A wheel-lock sporting rifle with an exceptionally fine horn-and ivoryinlaid stock, German or Bohemian, dated 1667. The barrel formed in three stages, octagonal over the median, the breech and the muzzle chiselled boldly in relief with stag-and boar-hunting scenes respectively, each involving figures in early 17th century dress, the breech and the muzzle each terminating in an octagonal band, the breech additionally cut with a large spray of acanthus in high relief, the bore rifled with eight grooves, and with no provision for sights, the lock of bright steel retained by side-nails with chiselled heads, the lockplate bevelled and decorated over its length with a hare-coursing scene chiselled in low relief and extended over the dog-spring bridle, with flat wheel-cover cut with grotesques and scrolls, sliding pan-cover, the dog cut with a fox and bird vignette, perhaps after Aesop, and the barrel and the lock each artistically chiselled at a later date, with fruitwood full stock decorated over its entire length with a superb inlaid series of engraved designs in white, green and yellow stained staghorn, predominantly hunting vignettes in the manner of Jan van der Straet, called Stradamus (1523-1605), including a frieze of boar-and hare-hunting scenes over the left-hand side of the fore-end, a frieze of deer-and hare-hunting over the right, an elaborate still life on the under-side at the breech involving an allegory of Fecundity, a pregnant nude astride a split pomegranate and aiming a crossbow at the viewer, a boar-shooting woodland vignette opposite the lock, a further deer-hunting scene finely drawn to a smaller scale along the right-hand side of the butt, and the cheek-piece decorated with a mounted huntsman, his attendants and the kill, the entire inlaid hunting scheme heightened by clusters of ball-flower scrollwork carrying a w