Rare Documented French Wheellock From the Cabinet of King Louis XIII ( AL10258)

Manufactured 1620. This gun is in 46 caliber bore and has a 42” barrel.  This is an absolutely fantastic gun in both quality and historical value as it is out of the cabinet of Arms of King Louis XIII. The metal remains bright with areas of light staining. The fruitwood stock is decorated with scrimshawed stag horn inlays. On either side of the butt stock is a medallion of mother of pearl containing a portrait of presumably the owner King Louis XIII. Surrounding the pearl medallion is a stag frame and decorating the remaining areas of the butt are ball flower tendrils with natural bone and green stained inlays. The ball flowers themselves are done in mother of pearl. This is a very interesting piece as the barrel is a takedown of sorts. Unfortunately the forward half was lost at some point and one of the previous owners, Henk Visser, had a new forward part made. The restored front end is nearly indetectable.  King Louis XIII became King upon his fathers death at the age of 9 years old, however his mother acted as regent until he turned 16. He largely turned over his responsibility of ruling France to Armand Jean Du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu but more commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu and to Charles D’ Albert, Duke of Luynes. He only lived until 1643 where he died of extrapulmonary tuberculosis He was an avid gun collector and a inventory of his guns has been documented since 1673. Of course this gun was documented at this time. Accompanying this gun is the Sotherby’s catalog where this gun was sold out of the Henk Visser collection in 1991. The reprinted list of the Cabinet D’ Armes of King Louis XIII is in the book Master French Gun Designs of the XVII-XIX Centuries by Stephen Grancsay who was the former curator to the Arms and Armor division of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art. This gun is listed as inventory number 94 in the Cabinet D’ Armes Inventory. There is also an article written by The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art researcher Leonid Tarassuk on this particular gun mentioning the discrepancies in the measurements over the different inventories over the centuries.  There are only a few guns from the Cabinet D’Arm  of Louis XIII in private hands. The guns that we know of are the following: Inventory Number 134: Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sold at Sotherby’s in November of 1972 for $312,500 Inventory Number 93: Ex Clay Bedford Collection. Sold in 1994 for $350,000 Inventory Number 24: Ex Norman Blank Collection. Sold in 2024 : $881,000