Beschreibung:

A Fine 32-Bore German Flintlock Sporting Air Rifle By J. Bosler, Darmstadt, circa 1750 With slightly swamped octagonal sighted barrel cut with seven grooves and engraved with a symmetrical design of strapwork and foliage at the rear of the breech, engraved false tang, signed flat bevelled lock with engraved tail and cock (probably associated), moulded figured walnut half-stock (minor chips, butt cracked) carved with rococo decoration in relief, cheek-piece, brass mounts cast and chased with rococo ornament and figures in contempory costume, the resevoir housed within the butt, the butt-plate with sprung hinged cover to the aperture for the pump, and engraved 'No.1', set trigger, brass ramrod-pipes, horn fore-end cap, and horn-tipped ramrod 38½in. (97.8cm.) barrel Similar Bosler air rifles are in the Royal Armouries (No. XII-715) and Windsor Castle (L 273) Three gunmakers named Bosler are recorded in Darmstadt in the 18th century, one of whom was gunmaker to Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse (1691-1768), whose hunting lodge was at Kranichstein. He is recorded as owning eighteen different air weapons and shooting deer, wild boar, roebuck and small game at great distances. In 1747 his bag with air guns included a stag of 22 points weighing 480lb. A pair of Bosler flintlock air pistols is illustrated in F. Theodore Dexter, Forty-Two Years' Scrapbook of Rare Ancient Firearms , p. 43