AN UNUSUAL 24-BORE GERMAN FLINTLOCK GUN, EARLY... Lot n° 245

AN UNUSUAL 24-BORE GERMAN FLINTLOCK GUN, EARLY 19TH CENTURY, BUILT ON AN EARLIER STOCK INLAID WITH MOTHER-OF-PEARL AND FINELY CARVED IN HIGH RELIEF, THE STOCK SIGNED JOH. EBERHARDT SOMER, CIRCA 1660 with 18th century barrel formed in two stages, the rear section octagonal changing to a polygonal band capped by a turned girdle, inlaid with silver lines and scrollwork panels over the breech and fitted with silver 'spider' fore-sight, the lock early 19th century, sparsely engraved with scrollwork and signed 'Joh. Lauterer', fruitwood full stock, the fore-end inlaid over its length on both sides with engraved mother-of-pearl plaques formed as varieties of birds within an incised scrolling tendril pattern of inlaid leaves and flowers (the tendrils originally inlaid with wire, this and a small quantity of plaques each now missing), the butt slender and paddle-shaped, carved with the portrait bust of a 17th century prince in low relief about the barrel tang, finely carved in high relief on both sides with Roman battle scenes from the Second Punic War, after the chronicles of Polybius and probably inspired by the works of the Dutch engraver Cornelis Cort, the scene carved on the left-hand side illustrating Scipio coming to his father's rescue during the battle of Trebia, that on the right a scene from Scipio's victory over Hannibal at Zama, each scene captioned at length in Latin on scrolls carved along the lower edges of the butt and with the carver's signature incised on a corner of the right-hand scroll, with plain gilt-brass mounts including butt-plate and solid flat side-plate, and the ramrod-pipes and fore-end cap all originally silvered (the butt with a very light coverage of inactive worm holes, the ramrod missing), 76.9cm barrel Provenance Sold in this room, 24 June 2015, Lot 591 Prior to the 2015 sale, this gun was unrecorded within a small surviving group characterised by their distinctive paddle-shaped butts carved in high relief. Of these, the most well-documented is an example with its stock also signed "Joh. Eberhardt Somer" and which was formerly included in the renowned Gewehrkammer of the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar at Schloss Ettersburg: see Lenk 1965, pp. 66-7 and p.71, pl.45, figs. 1-3, pl.46, fig. 3 and pl.47, fig. 2., the gun attributed by him to circa 1660. Also see Fischer & Kahlert 1927, lot 51 (illustrated), attributed to circa 1650 in the auction catalogue, sold to Jakobssen. All of the examples known within this enigmatic small group appear to be mounted with barrels, locks and mounts from disparate periods, but for the most part these components are apparently the first and only ones mounted to each of the stocks. In this respect the Ettersburg gun primarily differs from the present one in that the barrel, the lock and the mounts are of types much closer in keeping with the period suggested by the form of the stock. The Ettersburg stock differs also in as much as the butt is carved on the right-hand side only: the left-hand side is decorated instead with an inlaid pattern of mother-of-pearl plaques near-identical to those inlaid over the fore-end of the present gun. The carving on the right-hand side of the Ettersburg stock is a very closely comparable version of the identical scene, together with its identical caption, which is carved on the corresponding left-hand side of the present gun. Another, the stock unsigned, was sold in these rooms 4th December 2013, lot 395, the property of a nobleman descended from the Grand Duke of Baden. This stock was decorated with carved battle scenes involving figures in dress contemporaneous with circa 1700. A further example was sold by Christie's Paris, 31st March 2011, lot 622. The Alsatian stockmaker Hans (Johann) Eberhardt Sommer is recorded active circa 1650-70, in Strasbourg and possibly also in the Bavarian city of Bamberg: see Neue Støckel II, p.1193. Johann Lauterer, whose signature is on the lock, was a gunmaker working in Weikersheim, in the vicinity of Schloss Langenburg, at least by circa 1780 and almost certainly related to I.G. Lauterer, who was active early within the second quarter of the 18th century. Other sporting guns by the Lauterers are recorded in the princely armoury at Schloss Langenburg. In the present instance at least, the inclusion of an early 19th century lock, together with the barrel and mounts equally out of stylistic keeping with the stock, supports the certainty that the previously unused stock was mounted or set-up considerably later than the period for which it would ordinarily have been intended.