A rare repeating flintlock gun by Antonio Costantini dating: late 17th Century provenance: North Italy, Smoothbore, three-stage, 13 mm cal. barrel: octagonal at the breech, then sixteen-faceted and then round, after several rings. Nozzle with iron foresight. Lock with convex plate engraved with floral motifs, with a brass rotor provided with loading lever on the left side. With a single, 250-degree rotation of the lever the cock can be armed, the pan can be primed, the batterie lowers and a bullet and a dose of powder are inserted in the powder chamber. Tang signed “Antonio Costantini” and with rear sight; briarwood stock and fore-end (several repairs) with engraved and chiselled iron mounts. Openable butt-plate, with magazines for powder, bullets and for two parts of the ramrod (these ones are missing) that need to be assembled with the iron-tipped one located under the barrel. A fine example of Italian repeating gun, with a system called “tutto indietro” (“completely backward”), created and signed by Antonio Costantini, a gunsmith we did not know so far. See different pistols and rifles featuring this type of system in 'I Primi Fucili a Ripetizione' by Gianoberto Lupi, Editoriale Olimpia 1976; the cover image shows a very similar mechanism. length 119 cm.