348 - A double-barreled shotgun with beautifully carved mounts, by Dasch in Klagenfurt and Graz

A double-barreled shotgun with beautifully carved mounts, by Dasch in Klagenfurt and Graz dating: Mid 19th Century provenance: Austria, Damask, juxtaposed barrels, one with polygonal rifling (15 mm cal. at the nozzle), and the other smoothbore (16 mm cal. at the nozzle). Back rib with silver-plated foresight and fixed rear sight, with the gold-inlaid signature "B (or J?, not clearly legible) DASCH IN KLAGENFURT". The base of the rib with effigy with silver-inlaid dragon in relief, surmounted by a Gothic-style canopy with silver and gilded elements. Breech blocks with bas-relief featuring two enigmatic figures: an animal, most likely, and a figure armed with a bow (Diana with her hound?). Wide tang with beautiful, highly relief-carved effigy of a hunter within a gilded frame, surrounded all round by racemes and small frames in bas-relief. There is an oval in which the owner’s heraldic emblem was probably once set (now missing, only the small gilded crown remains). The end of the tang with large serpent and a screw with a gilded head. Both locks still present, but only one with cock. Lock plates with gilded mark "DASCH / GRAZ" and decorated in bas-relief with hunting scenes and racemes. Finely carved cock, partially gilded and features the effigy of a cherub. The only original mount still present is the trigger guard, which is as finely worked as the other elements but shows more pitting. Of the original wooden stock, probably only the fore-end segment remains; the rest has been restored (unfortunately rather poorly) in more recent times. Regrettably, the other mounts and the entire butt stock are missing. A high-quality firearm which, although incomplete, undoubtedly deserves a proper restoration. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna holds a double-barreled shotgun (Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, G 561) that belonged to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, dated 1841 and made by Heinrich Dasch, who worked in Graz and Vienna, with decorations similar to ours in both style and the quality of the carving. Another item, with mounts of the same high quality, produced for the 1844 Ljubljana Industrial Exhibition, was sold by Rock Island (auction 5 June 2020, lot 339), attributed to Zacher Dasch. Stoeckel lists three Austrian Daschs (Ignatius of Graz, c. 1770; Kajetan, also of Graz, c. 1800–1840; and his son Heinrich, active in Graz and Vienna, 1811–1853). Vol. 1, p. 269.