Stunning circa 1720 ornate lady's hunting rifle made by Franz Wilhelm Weyer for the Holy Roman Empress Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary. A spectacular example of the gunmaker's art, built in a typically Germanic style but in an elegantly diminutive size. The gun has a beautifully swamped, pin-fastened, octagonal barrel with a bright, .60 caliber bore and deeply grooved rifling. The barrel itself retains most of the original browned finish which has developed a subtle, speckled patina over the years, but retains its brilliant gold inlay embellishments—graceful geometric filigree surrounding the front sight and also adorning the breech, as well as the maker's name along the top flat: “Franz Weier In Wien”; and an inset Royal Habsburg Double Eagle proof. The rear sight has both a fixed and flip-up leaf with deep relief scrollwork embellishments and also retains nearly all of the original gold finish. The lock has a bright gray patina with delicately rendered engraving depicting a hunter, accompanied by his dog and gamekeeper, taking aim at a stag. The maker's name is repeated along the bottom border of the pan: “Wilhelm Weyer,” with “In Wien” behind the hammer.
The rifle was originally built as a flintlock, but was expertly converted to percussion sometime in the 19th century. The original swan-necked cock was retained, with the addition of a cupped metal hammer in place of the flint. The original frizzen was removed and replaced by a pivoting cover/safety that prevents the hammer from striking the nipple when deployed. The cover pivots on the original external frizzen spring, which was also retained, and the lock functions perfectly. The beautifully figured European walnut stock has a horn forend tip, relief carved borders running along the ramrod channel, relief carved foliate scrollwork surrounds at the trigger guard, and a sliding patchbox cover on the right side of the buttstock. The intricately pierced gold sideplate depicts a standing hunter and his horse, with cloud of smoke rising from the muzzle of his gun, and a rearing stag about to fall to the ground. The beautifully engraved, gold-finished trigger guard features a small oval vignette of a standing stag at the center of the trigger guard bow, and the equally embellished buttplate has a large central vignette of two deer, while the long tang has a small engraved portrait of a woman wearing a short-brimmed, man's hunting hat (presumably the Empress Elisabeth Christine herself). The top of the wrist has a royal coat of arms escutcheon which has been deliberately defaced (perhaps when the rifle left royal ownership), but the rear portion of the Bohemian Lion Rampant can just be made out. The original horn-tipped ramrod is still included, and is held by two gold-finished thimbles, and a gold tailpipe with deep relief engraved scrollwork design. The gunmaker Franz Wilhelm Weyer (also “Weier”) was born in Brannau am Inn, Austria, and began his gunmaker's apprenticeship at Vienna in 1709. He became a Journeyman in 1715, and was elevated to Master Gunmaker in 1717, being named Royal Gunmaker to the Empress not long thereafter. He did not have a long career, and died circa 1723, which would date the manufacture of this rifle to about 1720.
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary (1691–1750), was the wife of Emperor Charles VI, mother of Maria Theresa, and grandmother of Marie Antoinette. She was introduced to shooting by her husband, and was an avid hunter and target shooter; indeed, the only active sport she allowed her daughters to participate in was target shooting. A letter written by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in 1716, mentions a visit to the summer palace at Schonbrunn during which she observed the ladies at their favorite sport, target shooting with precision guns. Lady Montagu commented that it ‘might make as good a figure as the prize shooting in the Aeneid if I could write as well as Virgil.’ Oversized.
