AUCTIONS IMPERIAL JUNE 2020 ARMS & ARMOR
Lot 243:
Description
The walnut stock with fine, stylized comb and relief-carved profile of a man or god in a scrolled frame characteristic of the best Neapolitan work, with raised cheekpiece and chequered wrist likewise with scrolled borders, the iron buttcap with finely profiled and engraved silver heelplate. Fitted with excellent patilla-type locks, each with profiling and grooved striker faces, and dedicated triggers. The silver triggerguard elaborately profiled and engraved en suite with the heel plate, surrounded by carved scrollwork. The wrist set with the crest of the de la Garza family, Grandees of Spain (Grandes de Espana, ) finely engraved in silver, the shield depicting a heron and supporting the coronet reserved for dukes and viceroys and others of the highest ranking Spanish nobility, framed in laurels. The forearm with iron wedge key, fine inletted silver ramrod socket and faceted thimbles in silver. The 20 bore double barrels with faint engraving and gilding at the breach. Retains its original ebony ramrod with flared finial and sling loops. Mid-late 18th century. Minor rubbing, stable crack to forearm. Overall length 127.5cm. Owned by a prominent member or members of the de la Garza family during the second half of the 18th century, when it would have been ordered from a Neapolitan master and shipped across Europe and on to the New World. De la Garza is a Spanish noble name which has its origins in medieval Galicia and is attested from the 13th century. By the mid-16th century, members of the de la Garza family, notably Alonzo Garza del Alcon, had come to New Spain as soldiers and explorers. Between 1596-1603, the family settled in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in northeast Mexico. While the Garza name is now rarely found in Spain, it is quite well known across Mexico and Texas and is inextricably intertwined with the history of Texas. Miguel de la Garza Falcon (1699-1753,) officer and colonist, is believed to have explored farther up the Rio Grande River than any other explorer before the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon 1712-1767, was likewise a noted explorer, colonizing much of what is now southern Texas. Juan Jose de la Garza Falcon, 1736-1796, established ranches on a large parcel of land on which Brownsville, Texas was built in 1848. Second half of the 18th century, Condition II
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