The Norman R. Blank Collection holds some of the most beautiful and historic firearms ever sold. With more than 30 lots from the Blank Collection being offered in Rock Island Auction Company’s Aug. 23-25 Premier Auction, there is a lot to unpack, so let’s break them down into a few related categories, each containing spectacular pieces from their genre.
Wheellock Sporting Guns
Wheellocks were the first self-igniting firearms which made them particularly significant in firearms evolution and also made them far more practical. Most of the wheellocks seen today were produced for European noblemen to use on their hunts and therefore are often as much artworks as they are firearms. Some of the finest historic examples of this fascinating genre can be found in Rock Island Auction Company’s Aug. 23 – 25 Premier Auction in Bedford, Texas, including certainly the most historically significant wheellock the auction house has ever brought to auction.
There is nowhere better to start than with the best of the best. One of the most significant antique firearms in private hands is gun Number 24 from King Louis XIII of France’s Cabinet d’Armes, an absolutely stunning wheellock sporting gun attributed to gunmaker Francois Poumerol. This is certainly one of the crown jewels of this already outstanding collection. The smoothbore sporting gun is over 400 years old and is a fantastic work of art received by the young French king as he was consolidating his control of France after ousting his powerful mother, Marie de Medici. Very few firearms from the Cabinet d’Armes of Louis XIII are in private hands. This piece has been tucked away in Mr. Blank’s collection for decades and may never be publicly available again as it could very well find itself on display in an internationally renowned art museum.
Superb Pair of Wheellock Sporting Rifles by Caspar Zelner
These two matching wheellock sporting rifles by Caspar Zelner (1661-1745), the royal gunmaker for Emperors Joseph I and Charles VI are beautiful, featuring gold inlays that contrast with the blue finish. The large flat lock plates serve as excellent canvases for the engraved scenes featuring Diana, goddess of the hunt, and the motif continued on the pierced side plates.
Large German Wheellock Sporting Gun with Double Dogs
Two dogs on the large lock allows a hunter to quickly get this smoothbore wheellock sporting gun back into action should they have one of their pyrites fail to spark against the wheel. The fruitwood stock features extensive bone/staghorn inlays intricately engraved with bestial motifs, including a series of four masks along the forend and serpents.
Smoothbore Muzzle Loading Long Guns
Most of the sporting guns of the 18th century and earlier were smoothbores, and they naturally remained popular into the percussion era. These versatile firearms could fire birdshot, buckshot, buck and ball, or single round balls depending on their quarry, and many were fairly ornate given their owners were primarily wealthy landowners and the nobility. The August auction has an impressive selection of primarily English smoothbore muzzle loading sporting guns.
Ornate Flintlock Sporting Gun by Griffin
The Norman R. Blank Collection notes indicate that noted author and collector W. Keith Neal believed the outstanding sporting gun with silver inlaid stock by Griffin from circa 1770 “may have been made up by Griffin as a show piece since there is no name or crest on the escutcheon.” It features chiseled and engraved floral and classical martial motifs throughout as well as an interesting scene depicting two putti studying a book and globe and another scene on the heel tang of a dog flushing a bird. The full-length stock also features incredibly detailed raised relief carved floral patterns and extensive silver wire inlays with inlaid engraved floral blooms and leaves.
John Twigg Flintlock Swivel Breech Sporting Gun
John Twigg (1732-1792) was a renowned English gunmaker in the late 18th century, so much so that his name was sometimes spuriously marked on guns made by other gunmakers. Twigg’s impressive swivel breech or “wender” sporting gun is the real deal and features dual Damascus barrels with gold vent liners, fine engraving, and classic English carving and broad checkering.
Historic Cased Silver-Mounted John Manton & Son Shotgun Made for U.S. Senator Edward Lloyd
Like Twigg, John and Joseph Manton were certainly among the premier gunmakers of their time. Their careers stretched into the percussion era, and this cased silver-mounted 7-bore shotgun is a fascinating example that bridges the flintlock and percussion era by including both an advanced flint lock and rare tube lock. This piece is also historically significant as it was purchased by U.S. Minister to England Richard Rush and owned by influential U.S. Senator Edward Lloyd. The senator also served as the governor of Maryland and is widely remembered as a notorious slaveholder thanks to The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
John Manton & Son Double Barrel Shotgun with Bird’s Eye Maple Stock
This truly special John Manton & Son double barrel percussion shotgun has a bird’s eye maple stock, nearly unheard of on an English shotgun and truly highlights the gold inlays. The gun glistens with a gold bead front sight and a gold sunburst pattern inlaid base, “John Manton & Son, London” in gold inlay, and gold inlaid foliate patterns. The breech plugs and the Damascus barrels feature additional gold inlaid scroll patterns. Norman R. Blank wrote, “This is one of the most elaborate English percussion guns I have seen.” Given the breadth of his collection and its overall quality, that is quite the statement!
Cased Percussion Double barrel Shotgun by John William Edge
This cased 12 gauge shotgun from John William Edge of Manchester features beautifully intricate engraving, including scenes of various game birds, the gun’s intended targets. It is an elegant example of a high quality English percussion fowling piece from the mid-19th century.
Muzzle Loading Rifles
For most of the muzzle loading era, smoothbores were by far the most common firearms, but rifles have been around for a long time and gained in popularity in the last quarter of the 18th century. Norman R. Blank acquired some of the finest examples of muzzle loading rifles made both in Europe and the United States.
Silver Mounted Half-Stock Flintlock Sporting Rifle by James Haslett
A perfect example from Mr. Blank’s collection is this silver mounted half-stock flintlock sporting rifle by James Haslett. His collection is almost entirely focused on European arms, and, while this stunning rifle from James Haslett was made in Baltimore, Maryland, and has a distinctly American theme, at first glance it appears to be a very high quality English half-stock sporting rifle from the early 19th century. This silver mounted rifle is among the finest of its type and is truly one of my favorite pieces from Mr. Blank’s collection. It is a collector’s wishlist in terms of condition, quality, rarity, beauty, and artistry.
Bohemian Flintlock Sporting Rifle by J.A. Maerckle
Returning to the Old World, this fascinating flintlock rifle by J.A. Maerckle of Bohemia is shaped like a traditional wheellock sporting rifle and features a rare bronze barrel and lock plate. This beautiful piece was formerly in the famous arms collection of the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar at Schloss Ettersburg.
Elaborate Target Rifle by Joseph Perger
This incredible rifle from Joseph Perger of Gratz, Austria, takes us a bit forward in time to the mid-19th century and also represents another kind of sporting rifle: a percussion off-hand target rifle. For its stated purpose, it is already a piece of functional art, but the engraving plus gold and silver inlays featuring a variety of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses takes it above and beyond and places it at the pinnacle of fine percussion target rifles.
Whitworth Sporting Rifle for the Duke of Somerset
The iconic Whitworth rifle was one of the most accurate of all muzzle loading rifles, which has long made them highly sought after by collectors. They were famously used by Confederate sharpshooters during the Civil War, but this rifle was not made for Johnny Reb, it was made for Edward A. St. Maur (1804-1885), 12th Duke of Somerset and First Lord of the Admiralty.
John Dickson & Son 4 Bore Dangerous Game Rifle
Most of the muzzle loading rifles we see are fairly small caliber compared to this shoulder-busting 4-bore rifle by John Dickson & Son. This rifle was clearly purpose-built for hunting dangerous game and was sold on July 14, 1859. 4-bore rifles were popular with English sportsmen hunting elephants and other big game in Africa in the middle part of the 19th century.
Breech Loading Sporting Guns
While the attention thus far has been focused on muzzle loading firearms, Mr. Blank was an active sportsman who also collected beautiful English breech loading sporting guns, particularly double barrel shotguns and double rifles. The following three lots from his collection are excellent examples of the finest English double guns.
A Purdey in Paris
This double rifle from J. Purdey & Sons is truly a work of art. This stunning .450 3 ¼ (Black Powder Express) rifle was displayed by Purdey at the extravagant Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1878 and again the following year at the Sydney International Exhibition in Australia before being owned by Baron Keane. This exceptional rifle features absolutely remarkable engraving.
Purdey Double Barrel Shotgun Pair Engraved by Ken Hunt
The next selections continue the theme of Purdey’s famous excellence with not one but a matching pair of Ken Hunt master engraved sidelock double barrel shotguns complete with a case and extra barrel sets. The pair even includes Mr. Blank’s original invoice from Purdey for the pair from July 18, 1960, as well as other documentation.
Holland & Holland 8 Bore No. 3 Double Barrel Paradox Gun
Holland & Holland’s famous Paradox guns were innovative and are highly sought after by serious sporting arms collectors. They feature rifling at the muzzle that allows them to effectively fire bullets in addition to shot. This rare 8 bore example produced in 1897 is one of only 69 or 70 8-bore Paradox guns built by Holland & Holland over a 24 year period.
Muzzle Loading Pistols
While Norman R. Blank clearly had a taste for a wide variety of fine sporting guns, his interest in fine antique firearms also extended to European muzzle loadings pistols. The upcoming sale contains several notable examples, including silver mounted English and Spanish pistols, dueling pistols, and an incredibly ornate pair of wheellock pistols from Brecia in Northern Italy.
Pair of Brescian Wheellock Pistols
The gunmakers of Northern Italy are well-known for their incredible pierced metalwork, and that is demonstrated beautifully on this pair of Brescian pistols in the upcoming auction. They have been touted as the world’s most beautiful wheellock pistol pair, and are documented in “Die Waffensammlung des Fursten Salm-Reifferscheidt zu Schloss Dyck” by Max von Ehrenthal and appeared on the cover of Dexter’s “Armseller” Vol. 2, August-September 1956, No. 3 where they are noted as “Considered the world’s most valuable Italian pistol pair.”
Pair of Silver Mounted Wogdon Flintlock Dueling Pistols
When it comes to dueling pistols, no maker is as well-known as Robert Wogdon. He was so connected to dueling that to participate in a duel was known as taking part in “a Wogdon affair.” This pair of cased and silver mounted Wogdon dueling pistols is a stunning example of classic late 18th century British dueling pistols.
Cased Pair of Joseph Manton Half-Stock Rifled Flintlock Dueling Pistols
Joseph and John Manton were among the most respected London gunmakers of the late 18th century and early 19th century. In addition to fine sporting guns like those discussed above, they were both also well-known for their fine pistols, particularly their dueling pistols. This cased pair from “Joe Manton” is particularly noteworthy as it features rifled barrels, an unusual feature for British pistols in the early 19th century.
Lot 3280: Silver Mounted Spanish Miquelet Belt Pistol by Doiztua
This very ornate pistol offers a different flavor, dating from the late 18th century. The stunning silver mounts and complimented by gold inlays on the barrel and fine raised relief carving. While the flintlock was the dominant ignition system for firearms across most of Europe, the Spanish, Italian, and other Mediterranean gunmakers also utilized a snaplock commonly known as the “miquelet” today. Unlike a “true flintlock,” the miquelet lock has half and full-cock sears that engage the cock on the exterior of the lock.
Bespoke Firearms of the Norman R. Blank Collection
The beautiful bespoke European fine arms of the Norman R. Blank Collection represent just one of the many collections featured in the Aug. 23-25 Premier Auction. The August Premier Firearms Auction contains over 1,700 lots, including selections of fine and historic arms from other notable collections such as the Greg Lampe Collection, the George S. Lewis Jr. Collection, the Mac McCroskie Collection, the Andrew Singer Collection and many others. If you are on the hunt for the best of the best to add to your collection, check out the catalog online now and make sure to be in Bedford, Texas, for the preview day on August 22nd.
