Product Details
JOSEPH GRIFFIN, LONDON
A RARE 16-BORE BREECH-LOADING FLINTLOCK SPORTING RIFLE,
circa 1770-80, with 34 1/2in. swamped octagonal to round sighted barrel rifled with ten grooves and signed 'GRIFFIN. LONDON' on the sighting-flat, iron tang, rounded lock signed 'GRIFFIN' (steel refaced), walnut full stock with no provision for a ramrod (minor blemishes throughout, toe of butt chipped and with old worm holes), the underside of the butt fitted with a small folding saw, plain iron mounts including side-plate, the trigger-guard incorporating the breech-plug, the trigger-guard unscrewing to expose the loading aperture, and shaped iron escutcheon engraved with a crest involving a stag (engraving worn, one barrel-bolt missing, sling mounts removed, iron parts with surface corrosion throughout), London proof marks and barrelsmith's mark 'IG' for Joseph Griffin.
Other Notes: This type of screw-breech sporting rifle was popular for shooting fallow deer from trees and other hides above ground level where the hunter's scent wouldn't alert the quarry but also where a muzzle-loading rifle would be totally impractical. This type of screw-breech rifle pre-dated the Ferguson breech-loading rifle by at least two decades. For further information see W. Keith Neal & D.H.L. Back, Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790, pp. 115-6, pl. 440 where it is noted that Griffin was a well known maker of such rifles. The presence of the saw may well have been for removing small branches obscuring the line of sight to the herd of deer once the hunter was ensconced in his perch.
Estimate £2,500-3,000
THE ABOVE LOT IS PURCHASED AS AN EXEMPT ITEM UNDER SECTION 58 (2) OF THE 1968 FIREARMS ACT. TO BE HELD AS A CURIOSITY OR ORNAMENT.