British-Style Leaf Carved American Fowler,

British-Style Leaf Carved American Fowler, c. 1740. 60 in. barrel with ring decoration at the breech and London Company of Gunmakers' proof marks with trace of a barrel maker's mark, double ring decoration approx. 10 and 14 1/2 in. from the breech, brass blade front sight, filed notch rear sight; large early French lock with stepped tail and long pointed steel spring finial; tiger maple stock with massive butt and thick wrist, raised carving around the lock and side plate plateau, scroll and leaf carving around the rear of the trigger guard and entry pipe, raised carving along the rammer channel; brass furniture including a trigger guard with leaf finial, stepped butt plate tang with foliate and geometric engraving, foliate shield thumb piece, early replaced oversized flat triangular side plate, brass nose cap, three sheet brass rammer pipes and one entry pipe; wood rammer with brass tip, iron jag end and sheet iron repair near the center. Overall lg. 77 in. Condition: Barrel and lock toned to mottled brown, barrel may be a little shortened; stock has a vertical splice 14 in. from the muzzle, a splinter loss on the right side of the barrel channel at the nose cap, a stable crack on the right side just forward of the lock and chip at the back of the breech plug tang, an additional hole near the forward side nail underneath the side plate indicates that the present lock is an early replacement; brass toned to dark yellow/green. Footnotes: Provenance The Bill Berryman Collection. Literature Illustrated and described in Tom Grinslade, Flintlock Fowlers The First Guns Made in America, American Fowling Pieces from 1700-1820, (Pottsboro, Texas: Crazy Crow Trading Post, 2005), p. 173. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing