Decorator, Weapons, Les Collections, Celebres, D'Oeuvres D'Art, Carabine, XVII Siecle, From the Collection M le Comte de Niewerkerke, Plate 9, 1864

Date: 1864

Engraver: Delatre

Published by Goupil and Co, Editors, in Paris

Paper Size: 445 x 305mm

Print Size: 280 x 220mm

Condition: Good

Technique: Copperplate Engraving

Price: $150

Description: 

On its spinning wheel lock, whose cut-out flintlock forms the head of a fanciful bird, is depicted, in raised relief, a hunter attacking a bear with hounds. These figures, as well as their landscape accessory, stand out, by their tone of water-colored steel, on a background chiseled & gilded. The circular plate which covers the nut of the spinning wheel is, like its basin, associated with the work of the lock, decorated with trophies, fruits, and animals. Its barrel, most magnificently decorated, bears chiseled, firmly protruding, on three points of its length & standing out there from a golden background, by their bluish coloring, three superimposed ornamental motifs separated from each other by a space plain & blued. Near the breech, then higher, & dominating the finely fluted lower part, and finally, towards the end, around the point of aim, are successively represented, surrounded by various ornaments, Actaeon with two dogs, Diana holding a hunting cone, & Bacchus having fruit by his side. Each of these mythological figures is framed by foliage complicated by mascarons and birds. Four nasturtiums placed at regular intervals hold the rod trimmed with gilded iron at its top; they are chiseled in the same style as the other details of the frame, & colored in the same way. The wood of this splendid rifle is, on the main points of its whole, enriched with fine ivory inlays; they draw on the flats of the butt, in thin nets which frame them there, charming patterns of interlacing. - The part that lands on the ground to charge is furnished with a chiseled steel shoe of masks, birds & a large palmette in blue relief on a gold background. This precious weapon bears in monogram the letters H and B joined.