A French Masterpiece Presented to
The flat lock of steel with separate priming magazine of fire-gilded brass has a rebated tail and deeply moulded bevels. The cock is en suite with the lock and displays Hauschka’s characteristic artistry in steel engraving.Â
A Splendid R Flintlock Repe Sebastian Haus to King L
Damascus barrel is Hauschka A Wolfen
Royal French eating Rifle by schka Presented Louis XV
engraved Sebastian nbuttel (1695-1775)
All furniture is of brilliantly fire-gilded brass. All features and embellishments on King Louis XV’s rifle exemplify the highest order of the gunmaker’s art.
firearms@jamesdjulia.com (207) 453-7125 jamesdjulia.com | Fairfield, ME Auctioneer: James D. Julia Lic#: ME: AR83 | MA: AU1406
The gilded action is finely engraved with acanthus at the breech end. A portrait of Louis XV in a tricorn hat flanked by two of his hunting dogs appears on the top of the action drum. The tang is engraved with a classical Romanesque laureled head.
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his extraordinary rifle exhibits the very highest quality throughout as befits a royal presentation piece and is also an exceptional rarity being a repeating rifle built on the Lorenzoni/Berselli system with a rotating breech accessing separate ball and powder magazines contained in the butt and operated by a silver lever on the left side. The action itself is of fire-gilded bronze. The 25 inch swamped, octagonal, superb Damascus barrel is engraved Sebastian Hauschka A Wolfenbuttel (1695-1775). One of the greatest masters of 18th century German gunmaking, Hauschka was appointed maker to the Court of Prince and Duke August Wilhelm von BraunschweigWolfenbuttel. As a Court maker, Hauschka was required to make the most elaborate guns for presentation to foreign monarchs including The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, a gun for Empress Maria Theresa of Austria ordered by the Prince of Salm, and a rifle for King Louis XV of France. The flat lock of steel with separate priming magazine of fire-gilded brass has a rebated tail and deeply moulded bevels. The cock is en suite with the lock and displays Hauschka’s characteristic artistry in steel engraving. All furniture is of brilliantly fire-gilded brass. Trigger guard is fluted at bow and spurred at wrist with decorative filed finials. The buttplate which offers access to the magazines has a broad tang with hinged receptacle and a spring loaded cover retained by a button catch. The inside of the lid is engraved Hauschka Pinxit, Latin for “Hauschka Painted this” refers to the portrait of Louis XV contained within. All features and embellishments on King Louis XV’s rifle exemplify the highest order of the gunmaker’s art. The gold on the barrel is inlaid and engraved rather than damascened. The most important of these inlays is the personal insignia of the French King himself, consisting of mirror image L between an X and a V in an oval with crossed laurel leaves behind, surmounted by a Sovereign’s crown and all surmounted by a sun in splendor. Other gold inlays are of Louis XV as a helmeted warrior with elaborate border over an oval cartouche with the Bourbon lilies, the three fleur de lis. The gilded action is finely engraved with acanthus at the breech end. Another portrait of Louis XV in a tricorn hat flanked by two of his hunting dogs appears on the top of the action drum. The tang is engraved with a classical Romanesque laureled head. The rebated section of the lock-plate is chiseled in low relief with scrolls and engraved with a stag. A grotesque face is engraved behind the cock. The buttplate is cast and chased in high relief, nearly in the round, and a Sovereign’s crown adorns the door of the magazine. The stock is of the finest, highly figured, stump walnut with exceptional quality relief carving of acanthus scrolls, dragon heads, and grotesques. The molded and sculpted borders extend along the sides of the toe which is incised with the inventory number of the French Royal Cabinet d’Armes #464. The butt is adorned with masterfully engraved silver plaques featuring mythological beasts, Putti, and scrolling wire after designs in the pattern books of Jacquinet and DeLacollombe (1705) in the so-called Berain style similar to the Le Conte gun made for Louis XIV and inlaid in silver by Jean Berain at Windsor Castle. The right side is inlaid with Putti and a griffon and
The stock is of the finest, highly figured, stump walnut with exceptional quality relief carving of acanthus scrolls, dragon heads, and grotesques. The butt is adorned with masterfully engraved silver plaques featuring mythological beasts, Putti, and scrolling wire after designs in the pattern books of Jacquinet and DeLacollombe (1705) in the so-called Berain style similar to the Le Conte gun made for Louis XIV and inlaid in silver by Jean Berain at Windsor Castle. The right side is inlaid with Putti and a griffon and the left a Putti over a Sovereign’s crown.
left a Putti over a Sovereign’s crown. The fore-end is of stump walnut, pinned to the barrel, relief carved with a false ramrod held in by fire gilded brass thimbles.
turn him aside...(the bullet) wounded my horse in the buttock.” King Louis may well have been carrying this very rifle on the infamous hunting trip.
The toe is incised with the inventory number of the French Royal Cabinet d’Armes #464
Provenance: The Cabinet d’Armes of Louis XIII. Notes: The Cabinet d’Armes begun by King Louis XIII was the single most important collection of firearms ever assembled. The Cabinet d’Armes was set up in the Louvre Palace and first cataloged in 1673. A second inventory took place in 1717 and the third and final inventory began with the reign of Louis XVI and was completed in 1775. This final inventory included Louis XV’s Hauschka rifle, number 464. Whether one accepts the theory that the Cabinet was housed at the Bastille, the Louvre, or the GardeMeuble Museum, the events of 1789 took their toll on the Royal Collection and superb pieces left Paris to enter museums all over Europe. The grand flintlock #134 by Pierre Le Bourgeios a Lisieux, regarded by Metropolitan Museum curator Randolph Bullock as, “The most beautiful gun in the world” was finally acquired on behalf of the museum after a fifty year pursuit, at the auction of the Collection of William Goodwin Renwick Jr. on November 20, 1972 by Frank Partridge for the sum of 125,000 British Pounds or $302,500. Any Cabinet d’Armes gun is the greatest firearms’ treasure a collector or public institution can hope to own, but to acquire the personal gun of one of France’s great kings is a once in a lifetime opportunity. In 2013 dollars, the Metropolitan’s Louis XIII gun cost more than $1.7 million. This rifle is the only Louis XV gun in private ownership. In June of 2009 letters from Louis XV were sold in Paris. Among them was a note from the King to his cousin, the Duc de Penthiver referring to an incident involving the King shooting his horse by accident. “The wild boar, which was very large, charged at me...My rifle misfired when I saw him and I didn’t have time to
Trigger guard is fluted at bow and spurred at wrist with decorative filed finials.
The gold on the barrel is inlaid and engraved rather than damascened. The most important of these inlays is the personal insignia of the French King himself, consisting of mirror image L between an X and a V in an oval with crossed laurel leaves behind, surmounted by a Sovereign’s crown and all surmounted by a sun in splendor. Other gold inlays are of Louis XV as a helmeted warrior with elaborate border over an oval cartouche with the Bourbon lilies and the three fleur de lis.