This is just an extraordinary example of a Model 1853 Sharps Sporting Rifle that is engraved in the distinctive Gustave Young pattern. During this time period sales of the Sharps percussion rifles were way down and these sporting rifles were intend to appeal to the rich gentleman of the North that would occasionally go out on a big game hunt. It is estimated that only 68 of these engraved Sharps Model 1853 Slant Breech Sporting Rifles in total were manufactured between 1854 and 1859. As noted, this is engraved in the distinctive pattern attributed to the shop of Gustave Young, if not by the master himself. His telltale punch dots are present on the hammer below the spur. Each dot represented a 10 hour day of work. The hammer on this richly embellished rifle has 8 dots. It has 40-50% engraving coverage that covers the entire receiver, the hammer, the lock plate area, the loading lever, down the upper and lower tang as well as the rear section of the barrel, the patch box and top of the buttplate. The pattern is a very nice delicate scroll pattern with a light punch dot background. A most unusual feature is that this rifle does not have any animal scenes, which was usually engraved on this type of rifle. The rear of the barrel has an unusual single wedding band style collar with a nice delicate geometric pattern on top of it with a similar geometric pattern on the very front edge of the muzzle. An almost identical overall engraving pattern is shown on page 46 of THE BOOK OF COLT ENGRAVING by Wilson. The rifle is fitted with a full length 26 inch octagon barrel that has a 41 caliber bore with six lands and grooves with the early square cut style rifling that appears to be completely correct. Most rifles were noted to have bores of 32, 60 or 90 caliber. The top barrel flat is marked "SHARPS RIFLE/MANUFG. CO./HARTFORD CONN." ahead of the rear sight, the top of the receiver tang is marked "C. SHARP'S/PATENT/1848". The lock plate is marked "C. SHARP'S/PATENT/1852" behind the hammer and the top of the tang is marked with the serial number. The rifle has the early style slant breech action with the correct Lawrence pellet primer system lock mechanism. It is correctly fitted with the two sets of factory sights, the standard sporting brass blade front sight with the sporting folding rear sight. The second set consists of the factory globe front sight and early style (single screw base) tang rear sight. It is fitted with the standard double set triggers and straight grip stock with the military style buttplate. The barrel is blue, the receiver, hammer, loading lever, buttplate and patch box are all steel and casehardened. It is fitted with a nice straight grained walnut stock and forend with a hand rubbed finish.