AN IMPORTANT GERMAN WHEEL-LOCK SPORTING GUN, CIRCA 1605-10, PROBABLY DRESDEN with associated smooth-bored sighted barrel formed in two stages and struck with Amsterdam town mark at the breech, flat lock retained by two associated side nails, fitted with external wheel with gilt-brass cover chased with a pair of figures seated within a scrollwork frame and a winged cherub mask beneath, the rear portion of the plate applied with a large pierced and chiselled gilt-brass plaque decorated with Mars and Venus attended by Cupid above an espagnolette mask, dog engraved with a monsterhead, a pelican-in-piety concealing the dog-jaw screw, arm applied with a further decorated gilt-brass plaque (one plaque retaining screw missing), and the spur with a gilt-brass mask issuant from foliage, dog-spring decorated with filed scrolls, sliding pan-cover with button release, the inside of the lock retaining some blued finish (oxidised to black) and with filed springs (rear spring incomplete), double set trigger, full stock profusely inlaid in engraved bone over its entire surface with detailed scenes from the Old Testament all within a scrolling framework of trellis (losses, restorations along the full length of the barrel on each side), the butt carved with a scroll and with shaped cheek-piece on the left, with patchbox with sliding cover on the right and all decorated en suite (the butt and patchbox cover with losses), ramrod channel enclosed by a running openwork design of entwined scrolls (the forward portion missing), gilt copper alloy trigger-guard writhen at each end and shaped for the fingers (reversed), applied with a carved trophy-of-arms bone panel at the base of the ramrod channel, carved bone fore-end cap decorated with bouquets of fruit and foliage, and early horn-tipped wooden ramrod106.2 cm barrel ProvenanceJohn Beardmore, Uplands, near Farnham, Hampshire, probably acquired after 1844Beardmore Collection, sold Christie, Manson & Woods, 5th July 1921 , lot 97 $2,694.26 to Duveen (for Hearst)William Randolph Hearst, sold Gimbel Bros., Inc., 30th May 1944, $355Joe Kindig Jr. (1898-1971), thence by descent LiteratureFrancis Henry Cripps-Day, A Record of Armour Sales 1881-1924, London 1925, p. 225.Jacob Hay, Arms and the Man, the Sunday Magazine, Baltimore, 16th January 1949, p. 8.Harold L. Peterson, The Book of the Gun, London 1962. pp. 58, fig. 4.Merrill Lindsay, One Hundred Great Guns, An Illustrated History of Firearms, New York 1967, p. 56.John S. duMont, Joe Kindig Jr., Master of Antiquities., in Antique Arms Annual, sponsored by the Texas Gun Collectors Association, 1971, p. 153. The scenes are taken from the Neuwe biblische Figuren deß Alten und Neuwen Testaments, illustrated by Jost Amman and Johann Melchior Bocksberge, published in Frankfurt in 1565. There is a total of fifty six scenes on the gun, all taken from the old testament and running in order starting from the muzzle end, opposite the lock, continuing to and around the butt then, on the lock side to the muzzle. There are a very small number of variations from Amman’s illustrations, such as David and Goliath which were likely adapted to fit within the space. The sequence runs in strict order with only one anomaly: the final scene on the right of the muzzle taken from the first Psalm, which precedes Esther in the Old Testament. A possible explanation may lie in the text: 'Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take…..but whose delight is in the law of the Lord…..that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season…..Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.' The choice of scenes was no doubt deliberate and possibly held a specific meaning for the recipient of the gun, such as those shown in the earlier garniture of Saxon edged weapons made for the Elector August around 1560 (Historisches Museum, Dresden, inv. Nos. VI-393, P210, IV195). The Elector is portrayed as Moses, the worship of the Golden Calf is symbolic of the rejection of the Papacy and warns of the forces at play in the Protestant church. The vignettes on the spine of the butt of the present gun are based on illustrations by Hans Brosamer for Martin Luther’s bible published in Wittemberg in 1551. The intricacy and exceptional detail of the inlay is remarkable. It is likely that the stockmaker, who conceived the decorative trellis scheme, signed his work behind the tang where a small plaque is now missing. The gilt-brass decoration on the lock and the form of the pan-cover are characteristic of Dresden work of the first decade of the 17th century. A gun with a comparable lock is preserved in the Historisches Museum, Dresden (GG.237) and another in the Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. No. 2241-1855) . The barrels are struck with the mark of Georg Gessler (recorded 1569-1616) and dated 1611 and 1606 respectively. The stock of the present gun has a distinctive 'eye' motif on the scroll ahead of the cheek-piece, this is encountered on two other guns struck with the mark of Hans Stockman (recorded 1590-1639), both dated 1605, preserved in Dresden (GG235) and St Petersburg (no. 13). The Dresden gun is decorated with the initials of Christian II, Elector of Saxony (1583-1611) and his wife, the Electress, Hedwig of Denmark (1581–1641). The St Petersburg gun is decorated with the monogram of Christian II. It is likely that the present gun was an Electoral commission from the workshop of either Stockman or Gessler. See Schobel 1975, p. 193 and p. 182 no. 125, Hayward 1955, no. 21, and Tarassuk 1971, p. 161, no. 72. This gun was not featured in John Beardmore’s catalogue of 1844, suggesting it was acquired after that date. It was Joe Kindig Jr.'s favourite firearm. Part proceeds to benefit the Acquisition Fund of the Arms and Armor department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
