A FINE 22 BORE FLINTLOCK SPORTING RIFLE BY DURS EGG, CIRCA 1790

A FINE 22 BORE FLINTLOCK SPORTING RIFLE BY DURS EGG, CIRCA 1790 with rebrowned octagonal twist barrel rifled with eight grooves, fitted with reblued folding back-sight and silver-gilt fore-sight, signed ‘D. Egg, London’ in gold capital letters over the breech, inlaid with two gold lines, and struck beneath with London proof marks, gold-lined vent, engraved case-hardened breech tang decorated with foliage inhabited by two game birds and a sunburst, engraved stepped bevelled lock retaining some early case-hardening colour, decorated with a hound putting up a game bird on the tail and signed beneath the pan, fitted with blued sliding bolt safety-catch, bevelled cock decorated with a spray of foliage, gold-lined semi-rainproof pan and border-engraved steel chiseled with a central triangular panel, the interior fitted with blued main and sear spring, figured walnut half-stock, finely chequered grip, the butt with raised cheek-piece on the left, case-hardened iron mounts, comprising butt-plate engraved with a hound putting up a game-bird on the tang, trigger-plate with stylised pomegranate finial, trigger-guard with a moulded pillar at the front, engraved with a game vignette on the bow and a star on the rear scroll, fore-end-cap decorated with a sunburst, vacant gold escutcheon, silver barrel bolt escutcheons, iron sling swivels, original wooden ramrod with chequered brass tip, iron sling swivels, vacant gold escutcheon, silver barrel bolt escutcheons and some early finish throughout, 69.6 cm barrel Provenance Bonhams 23rd April 2008, lot 371. Exhibited The Rowland Club, Cotswolds weekend, June 2008. Durs Egg, son of Leonz a gunmaker in Oberbuchsiten, Switzerland, was born in 1748 and, after a short stay in Paris, is recorded working with John Twigg in London around 1772. He was granted denization in 1791, worked as Gunmaker and Sword Cutler, 24 Princes Street, Leicester Fields, 1778 - 86; 1 Coventry Street, Haymarket, 1786 - 1804; 132 Strand (near Somerset House), 1804 - 16; 1 Pall Mall Colonnade, 1816 - 32. He had a factory at 35 Mansell Street, 1794 – 11, his house and workshop was at 9 Kensington Gore, 1797 – 1802 and Knightsbridge Green, 1802 - 30. He was Contractor to Ordnance, 1784 – 1820, was granted patents for a breech loading gun, waterproof locks, recoiling barrel, pistol shoulder butt, tubular sights in 1803; and improved flintlocks, 3 & 4 barrelled guns, stick gun and safety powder flask in 1812. He was Gunmaker to George IV & Duke of York. A silver-mounted flintlock breechloading rifle by Durs Egg, made around 1784, is preserved in the Royal Collection, Windsor. He became blind in 1822 and died in 1831. See Blair 1973, pp. 266-299 and 305-353.