A FINE 33-BORE DANISH FLINTLOCK SPORTING RIFLE, CIRCA 1690
with octagonal sighted barrel swamped at the muzzle, struck with a halberdier mark three times on the breech (Neue Støckel 5067), rifled with eight narrow grooves and fitted with chiselled back-sight formed with a single folding leaf, rounded lock decorated with wavy borders chiselled in relief, a horned demon mask cut in relief on the tail, and the cock and the steel with matching chiselled borders enclosing chiselled designs of scrollwork, figured walnut full stock carved over its length with elaborate relief mouldings and acanthus ornament, the fore-end with carved wavy borders en suite with the lock, with scrollwork patterns also in relief about the barrel tang and the ramrod-pipe, elaborately carved raised cheek-piece, and fitted with sliding patch-box cover carved en suite, full iron mounts chiselled in relief after the Parisian fashion, comprising butt-plate with the upper tang formed as a serpent giving issue to a leafy scrollwork pattern, pierced side-plate formed as a serpent entwined with scrolls, trigger-guard cut with a monster's head spur and with pierced acanthus finials en suite with the stock, three ramrod-pipes of pronounced baluster shape, and the escutcheon decorated with a frame of pieced scrolls and marine monsters and surmounted by a demon mask, with trigger-plate fitted with sliding safety-catch chiselled in the form of a domed grotesque mask, moulded iron fore-end cap, and original iron-capped wooden ramrod
89 cm; 35 in barrel

The robust interpretation of the Paris-inspired chiselled and carved decoration is characteristic of Danish gunmakers of the period.

The halberdier marks are very similar to those stamped on the barrels of late 17th century firearms by the leading Copenhagen makers Matthias Kalthoff and Paul Nielsen Normann (Normand); see Smith 1938, cat. nos. 100/101, pp. 124-5 and cat. no.185, p. 71 respectively.