ALLEMAGNE, Saxe, premier tiers du XVIIIème siècle

Lightweight target shooting crossbow, known as "Wandschnepper", for ceremonial purposes. 1725. Walnut crossbow with rich inlaid decoration in bone or antler polished and engraved in black, such as: nets, fleurons, military trophies with seated centurions, shields with mascarons or with the profile of a helmeted officer or of a laurelled emperor, sighting groove plates decorated with long scrolled leaves. The stock with cut cheek, carved with a scroll with flower, and decorated in continuation of a trophy on bone with guns and flags, on mound with drapery with acorns and centered of a quadrilobe stamped with a blazon with the bull in a cartouche on crossed keys, under a crown with flowers. Heel of stick in plate of bone, carrying a n°2. Bow, faceted walnut hook, trigger guard and two triggers (one cocking - one fine trigger) in iron. Rounded iron stirrup, formerly gilded. Anchors and bowstring, possibly later, with green wool tassels (faded). Dated 1725 on the three-sided bridge in front of the nut. Blacksmith's mark inside the right arm of the bow (insect in a medallion). Length: 68 cm - Total length: 71 cm - Bow width: 56.5 cm. Without sighting piece, nor nut guard. Mechanism to be revised, the trigger does not release the hook of the nut. Wear and tear and a few missing parts, in particular a plate under the stick; shocks of use; oxidations; a pompom to be refixed. The bandage of the cord had to be, probably, carried out by means of a lever known as leg of doe or goat. The gold stirrup and the green tassels correspond to the colors of the Saxon State coat of arms and are found on crossbows of Saxon origin. The Electors of Saxony, also Kings of Poland, Friedrich August I "The Strong" (1670-1733) and his son Friedrich Augustus II (1696-1763) regularly organized target shooting competitions in Dresden and Poland with the aristocrats of their courts. The crown placed above the coat of arms on the stock may correspond to that of a German Count or a French Duke. However, the use of this type of crossbow for target shooting or hunting is typically Germanic. The coat of arms could be Polish with the bull (Ciolek) which appears in the arms of some great aristocratic families, notably the Poniatowskis. Was the owner of this weapon a Polish nobleman at the court of Dresden? The number 2 engraved on the buttstock probably indicates that there may have been a pair of crossbows, allowing for faster reloading in the act of shooting, or that it was part of a series of the same shooter's rack. A similar model with engraved bone ornaments, but without a coat of arms on the stock, and dated 1728, is preserved among the fine collections of arms at Moritzburg Castle, near Dresden, Saxony. Another crossbow, called a shooting crossbow, decorated with cartridges with hunting subjects, made by Johann Gottfried Hänisch the elder, dated 1733, comes from the Sedlitz Palace, near Dresden, Saxony, whose name is engraved on a cartouche on the top of the crossbow. It also has a number (6) engraved on the butt of the stock, and was one of a series of 24 crossbows used in shooting contests organized by the Electors of Saxony and Kings of Poland. It is in the Metropolitan Museum of New York [Inv. 2010.315].