Description
Original Item: One of a Kind. This is a very high quality Viennese Flintlock Blunderbuss, made by Schumski of Vienna, displaying the Ottoman influence of the Siege of Vienna in the 1680’s. Measuring 32″ in overall length with a gold inlaid iron barrel of 19 1/2″. It is beautifully mounted in SILVER including Butt Plate, Side Plate, Trigger Guard, two Barrel Bands and an oval Escutcheon displaying the FAMILY CREST of the BARONS VON STEUBEN OF MAGDEBURG.
The walnut stock bears some contour carving and is not cut for a ram rod. The brass lock is totally engraved with hunting scenes and the Crest of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE to tail. The flintlock Cock is most unusual being mounted “in” the lock plate. Not behind or in front but within the plate itself. It is flat faced and runs flush with the lock plate and is engraved with the maker’s name around the circular body of the hammer: SCHVMSKI IN WIENN. Just possibly the iron barrel dates to the Ottoman period of the Siege of Vienna and was repurposed in the early 1700″s. The iron barrel suffers from severe pitting but still retains masses of the thick Gold embellishment it started life with. Certainly a very important early Austrian Blunderbuss which was owned by PRUSSIAN ARISTOCRACY.
The BARONS VON STEUBEN were the family of the Prussian, and later American Revolutionary Officer MAJOR…
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