A Cased .650 (16-Bore) Percussion D.B. Sporting Rifle By J. Purdey, 314½ Oxford Street, London, No. 2489 For 1833With rebrowned twist sighted barrels signed in full along the rib, each rifled with ten spiral grooves, and leaf-sighted from '70' to '150' yards, each leaf with central platinum line, border engraved breeches each with short platinum line and pierced platinum plug, and engraved with a symmetrical foliate motif on the flat between, tang engraved with symmetrical foliate scrollwork and with a tiger's mask on the sighting flat, signed engraved serial numbered detented flat locks each retaining traces of case-hardening and decorated with foliate scrollwork and a stag in a landscape, dolphin hammers with foliate scrollwork en suite and engraved safety-catch, the mechanisms retaining their burnished finish, highly figured half-stock with cheek-piece, chequered grip and fore-end, border engraved steel mounts comprising butt-plate very unusually dated '1833' and decorated with a stag's head and scrolling foliage on the heel tang, serial numbered trigger-guard with chequered spur and decorated on the bow with a running stag in a landscape between borders of ropework, trigger-plate with a scallop shell above a flower-head on the pointed finial, and hinged circular patch-box cover decorated with a landscape scene depicting Lord Ossulston shooting a Chillingham bull from horseback, all within a border of ropework, border engraved barrel-bolt escutcheons, chequered forward trigger, sling button engraved with foliage, and original brass-mounted ramrod: in its fitted and partly relined mahogany case (compartment box and lid replaced) with accessories including G. & J.W. Hawksley brass-mounted powder-flask with bag-shaped planished tin body, and retaining most of its lacquered finish, steel bullet mould and sprue-cutter, and bullet-starter with leather-faced mallet-head (chipped), the interior of the lid with maker's trade label, the exterior (some old scratching) with circular vacant escutcheon centred on a flush-fitting circular brass carrying handle, London proof marks and Purdey's barrelsmith's mark 75 cm. barrels Footnotes:LiteratureUnsworth, p. 149. Recorded as sold on 27 July 1833 for £73.10.0. Unsworth notes 'The first rifle to have Purdey's upright style of hammers'. Built for Lord Ossulston (see footnote to lot 93)Dallas, p. 191The scene on the patch-box cover is immortalised in the portrait entitled 'Scene in Chillingham Park: Portrait of Lord Ossulston' or 'Death of the Wild Bull', by Sir Edwin Landseer and probably commissioned by Charles Augustus, 5th Earl of Tankerville. The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, and was last sold at Christie's in 2003 for £1,272,000 including premiumLord Ossulston appears to have met Landseer for the first time at Glenfeshie, in the Scottish Highlands, where Landseer was staying with his close friends the Duke and Duchess of Bedford. In his essay, The Chillingham Wild Cattle, Reminiscences Of Life In The Highlands, published in 1891, Lord Ossulston described the amusing circumstances of his first encounter with the artist. Lord Ossulston, who had just arrived from staying with the Duke of Atholl at Blair Atholl to stay with his friend Horatio Ross, on the other side of Glenfeshie, had set out in the morning to go stalking in the company of the forester Charlie Mackintosh. They had just spotted a large herd of hinds and a big stag grazing near a burn beneath them when they heard the crack of a rifle shot which scared away the herd and felled the stag. Thinking this was likely to be the work of a poacher they set off to see who was responsible: 'Upon this we dived into a hollow close to our right that took us down to the burn and crawling under its banks we soon ensconced ourselves behind the heathery knoll within a few yards of our poacher, to watch his proceedings before we finally pounced upon him. He was a little, strongly built man, very like a pocket Hercules or Puck in the ''Midsummer Night's Dream''. He was busily employed in gralloching his deer. This he did with great quickness and dexterity... He next let the head hang over, so as to display the horns, and then squatting down on the stone opposite, took out of his pocket what I thought would be his pipe or whisky flask; but it is a sketch book! Seeing that we had mistaken our man, I came out into the open, and then found myself face to face with my friend of many years to come - Landseer.'According to Ossulston's account, a few days after having met Landseer, and having spent much time together in the company of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford and their house party, he left Glenfeshie together with him to go to Chillingham. At Chillingham he recalled that Landseer 'at once devoted himself to the wild cattle as keenly as he had done to his beloved deer observing them with his glass for days from some hiding place, and noting minutely their ways and characteristics'.Lord Ossulston evidently soon decided that Landseer should have the opportunity to take a closer look at the cattle and a decision was taken to shoot one of the bulls to make this possible. As it was considered 'ignoble' to kill such a bull by a 'pot shot' a more sporting plan was hatched to chase a bull out of the herd on horseback and thereby to bring him to bay. This, however, could not be done in the upper park at Chillingham, where the woods, bogs, and ravines provided unsuitable ground for horses, so it was decided to first separate the selected bull from the herd in the lower park, which provided open space much more suitable for horses. The lower park and the upper park were separated from each other by a fence and advantage was taken of the fact that at night the gates between them were left open and the herd allowed to graze freely in the lower park. A keeper was placed in ambush beside a gate, which was to be shut on one of the bulls after the main herd had returned to the upper park in the early morning. Unfortunately the plan went badly wrong and the bull charged and tossed one of Lord Tankerville's keepers breaking four of his ribs and piercing his chest with its horn. The keeper was only saved by the prompt action of Ossulstons's deerhound, Bran which held the bull off the keeper's body. Ossulston recorded that the keeper called Barnes, survived his wounds and lived to be eighty, but that the bull was forthwith shot and together with Bran and the other personages concerned, was the subject of Landseer's picture of the ''Dead Bull''.Landseer's monumental composition is dominated by the handsome and aristocratic figure of the young Lord Ossulston, standing beside his pony Hotspur, with a rifle in his left hand, his right foot resting on the majestic Chillingham bull lying at his feet. Ossulston looks towards his deerhound, Bran, who has proved the hero of the occasion. Lord Ossulston's head keeper Coles, kneels beside the dead bull, to the left of the composition, with his arm around his master's deerhound, looking at the lifeless bull. A bloodhound beyond the head keeper imitates his master by putting his paw on the dead bull, while the right hand side of the composition is closed off by another bloodhound with a weary gaze.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
