AN 18-BORE WALLOON FLINTLOCK FOWLING-PIECE BY GILLE DE SELIER, LIÈGE, CIRCA 1705-10
with swamped barrel formed in two stages with turned girdle, the breech struck three times with the maker's brass-lined stamp (Neue Støckel 8241), brass-lined vent, engraved gilt-brass oval fore-sight and the tang engraved and punched with acanthus patterns, signed bevelled lock cut with acanthus ornament in low relief at the rear, carved moulded figured walnut half-stock decorated with leaf mouldings in low relief about the barrel tang and ramrod-pipe, full iron mounts chiselled in low relief, comprising butt-plate chiselled and engraved after the Parisian fashion, side-plate formed as a pierced design of C-shaped scrolls heightened with acanthus and developing from a pair of monsters' head scrolls addorsed at the centre, trigger-guard with its finials formed as acanthus sprays, a pair of faceted baluster-shaped ramrod-pipes, and chiselled escutcheon formed as a frame of acanthus scrollwork with coronet above (a screw missing from the rear of the butt-plate, another missing from the rear of the trigger-guard, the ramrod missing also)
107 cm; 42 1/8 in barrel