An Unusual 120-Bore Percussion Target Rifle With American Kentucky Rifle Stock
327
An Unusual 120-Bore Percussion Target Rifle With American Kentucky Rifle Stock
The Lock By James Purdey Of London, Mid-19th Century
With Swiss browned octagonal barrel stamped with maker's name 'F. Jeannet' along the top flat, recessed at the muzzle and rifled with six shallow grooves, the rifling in fine condition, blued ring and pillar fore-sight, case-hardened breech and border engraved tang, the former with pierced platinum plug, standing peep-sight adjustable for windage and elevation, signed border engraved case-hardened detented flat lock with safety-catch behind the hammer (nose chipped on one side), American striped maple full stock with raised cheek-piece and chequered grip, brass mounts comprising shaped side-nail plate, inoperable hinged rectangular patch-box cover within a shaped brass mount with kidney-shaped piercings, curved butt-plate with faceted heel, faceted spur trigger-guard pierced with a small hole, silver escutcheon and barrel-bolt escutcheon, the former engraved with owner's badge and motto, a baron's coronet above, set trigger (incomplete), faceted brass ramrod-pipes, brass fore-end cap, sling loops, original brass-tipped ramrod, and retaining much of its original finish
89 cm. barrel
Sold for £6,600 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • The badge and motto are those of the Baron's Vernon. Augustus Venables-Vernon, 6th Baron Vernon (1829-1883), for whom this and the following two lots were almost certainly built, was born in Rome and educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was Captain in the Scots Fusilier guards, and was later a President of the Royal Agricultural Society. On the creation of the National Rifle Association at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James's Street, on 16 November 1859, Lord Vernon was voted one of the twelve Vice-Presidents. He took part in the first Lords and Commons rifle match held on Wimbledon Common on 5 July 1862. The match consisted of eleven members per team, shot with 'any rifle' at 200 and 500 yards, seven shots per distance. Lord Vernon was on the winning Lords team, with an overall score of 411 to 349. See Susie Cornfield, The Queen's Prize, 1987

Category: Arms and Armour

Auction terms and conditions