A RARE 80 BORE FLINTLOCK GOOSE RIFLE BY EDWARD BATE, LONDON, CIRCA 1800

A RARE 80 BORE FLINTLOCK GOOSE RIFLE BY EDWARD BATE, LONDON, CIRCA 1800 with blued rifled barrels in a dice formation as a cluster of four around a fifth central barrel, silver fore-sight, the upper two signed ~Bate~ and inscribed ~London~ respectively, engraved breech and tang decorated with star bursts, the latter grooved for sighting, gold-lined vent, signed bevelled lock finely engraved with two game birds on a tree on the tail, fitted with engraved bevelled cock, rainproof pan, and roller on the steel spring, walnut half-stock, chequered grip, the butt with a velvet-covered cheek-rest (a working replacement), engraved trigger-guard decorated with a star burst and a hound putting up a waterfowl, engraved butt-plate, three iron ramrod-pipes (refinished throughout), and vacant silver shield-shaped escutcheon, and iron ramrod, perhaps the original 50.5 cm; 19 7/8 in barrels Provenance Sotheby & Co., 13th December 1971, lot 65, £460.00 to Clarke Literature Peter Hawkins, The Price Guide to Antique Guns & Pistols, Suffolk, 1973, p. 334 Edward Bate apprenticed in Birmingham and is recorded in London 1763-1810. From circa 1805 he worked in partnership with Jover as Jover & Bate. A sporting gun with skeleton butt by him is preserved in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle (inv. no. L.279).