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Lot 231*
A German Sporting Crossbow And CranequinLate 16th Century
29 April 2010, 11:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £7,200 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistA German Sporting Crossbow And Cranequin
Late 16th Century
Late 16th Century
With steel bow struck with two marks on the inside, one the Nuremberg mark, secured by later cords and retaining its original string of twisted cords, wooden tiller swelling towards the middle, slightly hollowed at the cheek-piece, indented for the thumb, and entirely veneered with white staghorn between thin strips formed of small diamond-shaped panels of light and dark wood and staghorn, the left side engraved with scaled foliated demi-figures, including one armed with a falchion and shield, and another with the head and fore-legs of a ram, the cheek-piece with Leda and the Swan and a female mask framed by strapwork, the right side with further demi-figures and grotesque heads, the latter spewing scrolls, the top with a labelled (worn) demi-figure of Justice and borders of scrollwork and guilloche interrupted by monsters, and, on the underside with further figures in contemporary costume, the labelled figure of Faith and an ape's head, its mouth forming the aperture for the set-trigger rod, all within borders of guilloche, and border engraved butt-plate with the arms of Saxony and the Archmarshalship of the Holy Roman Empire within a scrollwork cartouche, iron nut and cranequin lugs, swivelling safety-catch, curved iron lever trigger partly bound with cord and with turned staghorn terminal, folding set trigger, and iron ring for suspension, the russet iron cranequin with circular gear-box with bevelled central bar incised with a trefoil and deeply struck with a brass-lined mark, a crossbow (Neue Støckel 4857), clawed ratchet bar with belt hook, slender curved winding arm with turned swelling wooden handle, and original cord loop (2)
67 cm.
67 cm.








