A German Stonebow (Schnepper)
Mid-17th Century
Of characteristic form, with slender steel bow with old cord strings with wooden spaces, two slender tapering fore-sight pillars with button terminals, a fixed ring between, folding back-sight mounted on the built-in gaffle struck with a maker's mark, a squirrel (similar to Neue Støckel, 4041), the latter retained by a spring catch, circular button beneath setting the trigger, angular iron trigger-guard of tapering circular section, and fruitwood butt inlaid with symmetrical designs of brass wire scrollwork enriched with engraved mother-of-pearl ball-flowers framing two oval staghorn panels opposite the cheek-piece each engraved with a hound, a foliate engraved oval panel on the comb, and a mother-of-pearl medallion on the cheek-piece engraved with a male profile demi-figure in contemporary costume, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and with puffed and slashed sleeves, the back of the butt with a staghorn panel en suite
62 cm. long
