Plate from Nouveaux dessins d'arquebuseries...
Artist and engraver De Lacollombe French
Publisher Gilles Demarteau French
Not on view
This plate comes from a series of designs of ornament for gunsmiths. It shows four butt plates for long guns, trigger guards and others fittings. The first butt plate on the left has a grotesque mask and a circular medallion with 3 fleur-de-lis, crowned and enclosed in an order collar. The second butt plate is decorated with an oval antique profile bust medallion and topped by a grotesque mask. The third is decorated with the bust of a female, likely Diana because of the presence of a bow and arrows, a sun in a round medallion and a grotesque mask at the top. The last butt plate shows a seated fox with one leg up, a hunting panoply at the bottom and two dolphins at the top.
