A fine wheel lock rifle by Balthasar Rentsch dating: 1666 provenance: Germany, Octagonal, rifled, 14 mm cal. barrel, signed and dated 'Balthas Rentsch 1666', the base engraved with a flower, the ends framed with geometric motifs, with rear sight at the center featuring a carved and pierced flower, brass foresight, nozzle engraved with a flower; short tang decorated en suite. Beautiful, long lock with internal wheel, flat lock plate marked 'C. W. ', finely engraved with two hunters, deer, hound and flower motifs. Pan with sliding pan cover worked with a stylised whale, large cock carved and engraved with Diana holding a bow and arrow, the two ring openings formed by snakes. Engravings also on the inside. Walnut wood full stock richly inlaid with bone and mother-of-pearl plates, partially carved with small bas-relief scenes, the counterplate with a dragon fighting with an octopus, the right side with a hunter offering a boar's head to a woman, on the left side two deer, below a hunter with hound and boar spit, most of the other inlays engraved with floral motifs. Small restorations in the wood, some replacement inlays, small missing parts. Patchbox. Iron, anatomical trigger guard. Trigger and set trigger. Bone-tipped wooden ramrod. For Balthasar Rentsch see 'Der Neue Stöckel', vol. II, page 1030. It is presumed that the gunsmith worked in Stuttgart, south-west Germany. length 112 cm.