A German .577 (25-Bore) Flintlock Sporting Rifle

A German .577 (25-Bore) Flintlock Sporting Rifle By V.D. Fecht. Jun: A. Berlin., Circa 1815 With browned swamped octagonal leaf-sighted barrel inlaid with gold lines and engraved gold florets at the muzzle and breech, and rifled with eight spiral grooves, the top flat at the breech signed in gold capitals within a gold line border and with gold-lined maker's oval of a stag, gold-lined touch-hole, border engraved matted tang, border engraved flat detented lock in the English taste signed on a gold-inlaid oval and decorated with foliage on the stepped tail (minor pitting), foliate engraved cock and safety-catch, gold-lined rainproof pan and roller, highly figured full stock inlaid with decorative silver wire borders, butt with cheek-piece and chequered grip, the former inlaid with silver wire foliage and engraved silver flower-heads behind, the latter with shield-shaped vacant silver escutcheon, sliding patch-box cover with rayed silver button-catch and silver wire inlay inhabited by a running boar, foliate engraved silver side-nail plates, border engraved silver heel-plate cast and chased with a prone stag, ebonised spur trigger-guard with rear acorn finial and reinforced by a border engraved silver strap with finial cast and chased as a branch of fruiting oak, white-metal ramrod-pipes, the rear one with acorn terminal, adjustable set triggers (some old pitting), sling loops, dark horn fore-end cap, and original horn-tipped ramrod 70.2 cm. barrel Footnotes: Johann Friedrich von der Fecht was the son of Johann Diederich. He is recorded at 18 Jerusalemer Strasse, Berlin between 1738 and the year of his death in 1821 For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com