126 - Center-fire hunting rifle with external hammers, formerly owned by Amédée of Savoy-Aosta, second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy:

Center-fire hunting rifle with external hammers, formerly owned by Amédée of Savoy-Aosta, second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy: Double-barreled, blued, damascene-patterned side-by-side rifle with ejection port, the band lightly engraved with a thunder motif and signed: “HENRY. W. EGG. No. 1 PICCADILLY LONDON,” with the following stamped and numbered below: “3797” and “2” and “3797” on the fore-end; length 76 cm, 16-gauge, breech block fully engraved with foliage; front plates, marbled and blued, fully engraved and signed: “HENRY. W. EGG. LONDON,” hammers engraved in the same style; blued and engraved fittings, trigger guard numbered: “3797” and “2”, openwork butt plate, engraved, with a checkered center section, opened by an “S”-shaped lever at the front of the trigger guard; veined walnut stock, checkered grip and forend, silver thumb piece at the rear of the trigger guard, rectangular with rounded corners, monogrammed: “A S” surmounted by the royal crown; total length 117.5 cm. (Minor damage to the wood at the joint of the forend). Dated circa 1870. Very good condition. Amedeo, 1st Duke of Savoy-Aosta (1845–1890), was King of Spain for two years, reigning as Amedeo I (1870–1873); on May 30, 1867, he married, in his first marriage in Turin, Maria Victoria del Pozzo, the last heiress of an ancient Piedmontese noble family; they had three sons. After becoming a widower in 1876, Amadeus I remarried in 1888 to his niece, Princess Marie Laetitia Bonaparte, daughter of his sister Marie Clotilde, and had another son, Hubert (1890–1918). With the exception of his first son, all of his children died unmarried and without heirs. PROVENANCE: Victor Napoleon and his descendants.