57 - Percussion muzzle-loader, fully stocked, engraved lock, stamped number “133/80”, circa 1860

Percussion muzzle-loader, fully stocked, engraved lock, stamped number “133/80”, circa 1860 Gun in calibre 18 mm with barrel flat-sided at the breech, round towards the front, stamped there “133/80”, a narrow inlaid brass line at the base of the breech, opposite the lock a scratched, no longer legible combination of numbers and probably letters. Percussion lock (bar-action lock), lock plate with dot border and light scroll engraving, hammer engraved. Reddish-brown polished walnut full stock to just short of the muzzle, pistol grip chequered. Two flat brass barrel bands and brass fore-end cap, iron trigger guard with scrolled spur, iron sling swivels, ramrod present, rear sight missing, only its plate remaining. Age-appropriate condition, mechanism works, metal pitted over large areas and with whitish-grey marbling, engravings rubbed, wood with dark spots and a drying crack in the butt. Please inspect. L. 118 cm. The bar-action lock, in German Vorderschloss, also called vorliegendes Schloss, is the classic form of the side lock: hammer and mainspring lie beside the barrel, the spring in front of the hammer on the lock bar. Lock plates with dot and line borders and scroll engraving on plate and hammer belong to the decoration of percussion hunting weapons of the 19th century, while the service guns of the period mostly had plain locks. The full stock with brass furniture and barrel bands follows the construction of the infantry guns of the percussion era, which replaced the flintlock muskets in Prussia and France from 1840. On firing, the hammer strikes the percussion cap placed on the nipple, whose flash ignites the powder charge in the barrel through the vent. Muzzle-loader exempt from licensing under German law, sale to persons aged 18 and over only.