Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This rifle, a masterpiece of stock inlay, may have been given as a wedding present to Archduke Charles of Styria (eastern Austria), the youngest son of Emperor Ferdinand I. The engraving on the butt end of the stock combines Charles’s Habsburg coat of arms with that of his wife, the Duchess Maria of Bavaria; the couple was married in 1571, the year the gun was made. Curiously the lock is mounted on the left side, a rare feature suggesting that Charles was left-eye dominant, or that he aimed with his left eye.

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