This rifle exemplifies the diverse influences shaping firearms design in eighteenth-century Sweden. Its slender proportions and small-caliber barrel are modeled after the Silesian Tschinke rifle; the prominent cheek stock is typically German, as is the use of inset brass decoration, yet the flat-faced lock copies French models. The lock mechanism, however, is unmistakably Swedish, as the snaphaunce lock was favored in Scandinavia over the wheellock and flintlock commonly used on the Continent. A gunstocker by trade, Jonas Schertiger the Younger was a member of the Stockholm cabinetmakers' guild. His name and the date of manufacture are prominently engraved on the brass inlay on the cheek stock. A blank escutcheon surmounted by a royal crown on the sideplate suggests that this gun was intended for the hunting cabinet of King Frederick I of Sweden (reigned 1720–51).
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Artwork Details
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Title:Snaphaunce Hunting Rifle
Stock maker:Signed by Jonas Schertiger the Younger (Swedish, active 1715–died 1748)
Date:dated 1722
Geography:Stockholm
Culture:Swedish, Stockholm
Medium:Steel, wood (walnut), brass, horn
Dimensions:L. 43 3/8 in. (117.8 cm)
Classification:Firearms
Credit Line:Purchase, Gifts of Prince Albrecht Radziwill and Charles M. Schott Jr., by exchange, and Rogers Fund, 1997
Object Number:1997.356
Signature: Engraved on the brass inlay on the rifle's cheek: SCHERTIGER FECIT 1722 (Schertiger made this 1722).
Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna, Feldsberg (Bohemia), and Vaduz; Bashford Dean, New York; William Renwick, Boston and Scottsdale; Clay P. Bedford, Scottsdale[Warren Thomas Lewis, Evergreen, Colo., until 1997; sold to MMA].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions 1991–2002," September 4, 2002–January 18, 2004, no. 18.
American Art Association. European Arms and Armour, Mainly XV, XVI & XVII Centuries. New York: American Art Association, November 19–20, 1926. p. 38, lot 84, plates X, XI, ill.
Fell, Herbert Granville, ed. The Connoisseur in America: Early Firearms at St. Louis Museum (May 1940), pp. 217–18.
Hoopes, Thomas T., and City Art Museum of St. Louis. "Loan Exhibition: Firearms of Princes." Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis 25, no. 1 p. 11–12, pl. I, f.
Lenk, Torsten. "Nordiska Snapplasvapen en Orientering." Svenska Vapenhistoriska Sällskapets Skrifter (1952), p. 32, fig. 31, ill.
Sotheby & Co. Catalogue of Highly Important Firearms from the Collection of William Goodwin Renwick (European, part I). London: Sotheby & Co., July 17, 1972. p. 8, no. 2, ill.
Hawkins, Peter, and Antique Collectors' Club. The Price Guide to Antique Guns and Pistols. Woodbridge, England: Baron Publishing, 1973. p. 298, ill.
Gusler, Wallace B., and James D. Lavin. Decorated Firearms, 1540–1870, from the Collection of Clay P. Bedford. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1977. pp. 217–19, no. 88.
Wennberg, Kåa. Svenska Gevärssmeder. Stockholm: Mälartryckeriet AB, 1982. pp. 42–45, ill.
Pyhrr, Stuart W. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection 1997–1998." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Autumn 1998), p. 33, ill.
Pyhrr, Stuart W., Donald J. La Rocca, and Morihiro Ogawa. Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions, 1991–2002. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. pp. 23–24, no. 18, ill. (color) and fig. 7 (color detail).
Byck, John. "Firearms in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arsenals of History: Firearms and Museums in the 21st Century (2018), p. 49, fig. 16.
Johann Michael Maucher (German, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1645–1701)
ca. 1685
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