This wheellock gun is from the French Royal Arms Collection, inventory number 60. The stock is almost entirely covered with fine designs done in silver and brass wire inlay, a very difficult and unusual technique. The bottom of the butt plate is engraved with the heraldic arms of France and Navarre beneath a royal crown.
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Dimensions:L. 43 3/8 in. (110.2 cm); L. of barrel 31 1/4 in. (79.4 cm); Cal. .47 in. (11.9 mm); Diam. of bbl. at muzzle 9/16 in. (14.3 mm); Diam. of bbl. at breech 7/8 in. (22.2 mm); Wt. 4 lb. 15 oz. (2246 g)
Classification:Firearms-Guns-Wheellock
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1904
Object Number:04.3.164
Inscription: Inscribed on the barrel: DG; on the exterior of the lock: DM.
Louis XIV, King of France, Palais du Louvre, Paris (by 1673–d. 1715; by descent to his heirs, the Kings of France); Louis XVI, King of France, Paris (1774–at least 1775); Albert Denison, 1st Lord Londesborough, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England (until d. 1860; by descent to his son, the 1st Earl of Londesborough); William Henry Forester Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England (1860–88; Armour and Arms…of the Right Hon. Earl of Londesborough, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, July 4–9, 1888, no. 72, “Wheellock gun, the stock and butt inlaid with gold wire, the arms of France and cypher of Louis XIV on the end of the butt,” for £41, to Pujol for Dino); Charles Maurice Camille de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Dino, Paris (1888–1904; sold to MMA).
London. South Kensington Museum. "Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance and More Recent Periods," June, 1862.
London. Alexandra Palace. "Londesborough Collection of Arms and Armour," 1875.
Victoria and Albert Museum. Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediæval, Renaissance, and More Periods, edited by Sir John Charles Robinson. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1862. no. 4674.
Chaffers, William. Catalogue of the Londesborough Collection of Arms and Armour: with a Descriptive Account of the Antiquities and Works of Art, the Property of Lord Londesborough. London: Harrison and Sons, 1875. p. 21, no. 536.
Guiffrey, Jules. Inventaire Général du Mobilier de la Couronne sous Louis XIV (1663-1715). Vol. II. Paris: Société de Propagation des Livres d'Art, 1886. p. 50, no. 60 (this gun described in French royal inventory of 1673).
Exposition universelle de 1889. Catalogue Général Officiel: Exposition Rétrospective du Travail et des Sciences Anthorpologiques. Vol. 5. Arts Militaires. Lille: L. Danel, 1889. p. 113, no. 909.
Cosson, Charles Alexander. Le Cabinet d'Armes de Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Dino. Paris: E. Rouveyre, 1901. p. 98, no. J. 8.
Hoopes, T. T. "Ein Beitrag zum französischen Radschloss." Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen– und Kostümkunde, Zeitschrift für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde, 14, n.s.v. 5 pp. 50–53.
Stockel, Johann F. Haandskydevaabens Bedømmelse. Vol. II. Copenhagen: Tøjhusmuseet, 1943. p. 555, no. 2366 (mark DG ill.).
Grancsay, Stephen V. Master French Gunsmiths' Designs of the XVII–XIX Centuries. New York: Winchester Press, 1970.
Blair, Claude. "Les armes à feu de la collection des princes de Liechtenstein." Connaissance des Arts (September 1979), p. 51 (similarly decorated French wheellock pistols).
Tarassuk, Leonid. "The Cabinet D'Armes of Louis XIII: Some Firearms and Related Problems." Metropolitan Museum Journal 21 pp. 72–75, figs. 5–10, ill.
Reverseau, Jean-Pierre. Armes et Armures de la Couronne au Musée de l'Armée. Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2004. pp. 40, 293, ill.
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