Wheel-Lock Hunting Rifle

Description The decoration on the stock with mounted hunters dashing after a lion, rabbits, wild boar, fox, and even a mythical unicorn is skillfully adapted to the contour of the rifle. The materials contribute to the elegance of the piece: delicate mother-of-pearl set into walnut which is stained to look like expensive and exotic ebony wood. The decoration is similar to that on rifles from Nuremberg attributed to the master known (because of his motifs) as the "Master of the Castles."

Provenance Thewalt; Sale, Cologne, 1903, no. 1692; Henry Griffith Keasbey, New York [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Sale, American Art Association, New York, December 5, 1924, no. 263; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1924, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1924