Property from an Important Private Collection A FINE LARGE GERMAN SPORTING CROSSBOW (GANZE RÜSTUNG),

Property from an Important Private Collection A FINE LARGE GERMAN SPORTING CROSSBOW (GANZE RÜSTUNG), MID-18TH CENTURY with heavy steel bow painted on the belly and back with an elaborate trellis design (small areas of wear and losses), retained by early cords with green pom-poms, small iron stirrup and fitted with an early string of twisted cord, tiller inlaid on each side with a matching trellis design in staghorn and enriched with engraved staghorn washers and scrolling marine monster plaques, the top veneered in engraved staghorn decorated with symmetrical panels of scrollwork, foliage, bouquets of fruit, and engraved with the owners initial, ~JZ?~ and the date, perhaps 1766 (rubbed, the tiller with a small repair on the left of the nut), fitted at the front with bolt rest, bone nut, horn bolt-clip (the front portion missing), folding adjustable iron sight, a pair of lugs for a cranequin and chequered thumb-rest, the underside inlaid with engraved staghorn plaques with further scrolls, including a central monsterhead with a pierced mouth for inserting a cocking rod, iron trigger-guard, and folding trigger 77.0 cm; 30 3/8 in tiller Provenance The Lord Astor of Hever, sold Sotheby~s, London, 5th May 1983, lot 84 The trellis design on the bow and the tiller is reminiscent of contemporary hunt enclosures. The marine monsters are reminiscent of the inlay on earlier Saxon pistols.