Project Description
This miniature was awarded NRA silver medal # 90 at the 2017 NRA Annual Meetings in Atlanta, Georgia, as one of the 2 best miniatures on exhibit!
!!!!!SOLD!!!!! This is a 1/2 scale side by side double rifle made by Foelen Siaens of Belgium for the 1905 Liege Exhibition, which was like a World’s Fair. 17 7/16″ long overall with 8 1/2″ rifled barrels of about .210 caliber. The bore has 6 lands and grooves with a right hand twist. Words fail me, but I’ll give it a try! This is an unbelievably spectacular one of a kind exhibition piece that was made specifically to show off the quality of materials and craftsmanship of this gunmaker, which until I had seen this miniature, I had never heard of before. The metal parts are finely polished rust blued steel, with the exception of the sights, the forearm release, the triggers, the pins, and the screws which are gold plated. Starting at the muzzle, both barrels are crowned. The gold front sight is dovetailed into the finely checkered top rib. The gold rear sight is also dovetailed into the rib, and folds down for protection. The forearm is beautiful highly figured French walnut, very finely and beautifully checkered, with diamond patterns on the bottom. The forearm release button is gold, and the rest of the forearm release metal is beautifully and finely engraved. The very back edges of the barrel are finely engraved. The box lock action is finely engraved on all sides, with some high relief leaf engraving at the breach. The triggerguard likewise finely engraved. All of the gold plated screws are very finely engraved with the typical very narrow slots usually found on fine European double guns, and all the screw heads are indexed, lining up with the bores. The lever to open the breech is very finely engraved on the top, and very finely checkered on each side of the thumb piece. The buttstock is very highly figured French walnut and very finely checkered at the wrist. The left side of the buttstock inlaid with a solid gold crown in what looks like a silver hat of some sort, the silver tarnished to near black. The butt of the stock is without a buttplate, the end of the butt very finely serrated, as is typical on many fine European double guns. This gun is chambered, but for what, I do not know. It is about a .22 caliber, but it is center fire. A .22 short rim fire cartridge will not chamber, but it is much larger than a 4mm rimfire. I know of no center fire cartridge that would fit this, & I’ve been collecting cartridges since I was 8. The bottoms of both barrels are Belgian proofed as follows, reading vertically: a crown, a capital “R”, an asterisk, what looks like a backward capital “J”, another proof mark, then what looks like a pineapple with the letters “E,L,G” in the body of the pineapple. There are more proof marks, see the photos as I don’t know how to describe them. It was very obviously proofed, so at one time, someone made cartridges for this rifle. The action has automatic selective ejectors, not extractors, which means it ejects any spent shells upon opening, one or both, but only extracts the unfired shells, leaving them in the chamber, sticking out slightly in case you want to change loads. Complete with the original Foelen Siaens black pebble grain leather covered hinged top case. The case with a key lock (no key), and two flip down latches. The interior is lined in a bright green silk, the bottom with ruffles. The interior lid with gold leaf printing “EXPOSITION – LIEGE, MANUFACTURE D’ARMS, FOELEN SIAENS, LIEGE, LE 27 APRIL 1905” Also included is the original highly figured French walnut handled cleaning rod. The miniature rifle is near mint, showing only some minor gold plating loss to one screw on the right side of the action. The case exterior is solid, but does show considerable wear, especially to the corners. The top of the case has four brass rivets, where I suspect there was a label of some sort at one time. The case interior is near mint except the spiral green & red cord has come loose on about half of the bottom perimeter. This is one of the finest, if not the finest, miniature firearm I have ever had the pleasure to hold in my hands. Lots of photos, but still, you just can not understand how wonderful this piece is until you see it for yourself! I’ll be honest, I really don’t want to sell this. This is the best of the best, but alas, I paid a fortune for it, & I can’t afford to keep it. !!!!!SOLD!!!!!
