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LOT 1325
Outstanding Documented Chiseled, Relief Carved, and Silver Mounted Neapolitan Miquelet Smoothbore
Sporting Gun by Camerchioli, Matteo Fonzo, and Lupi Dated 1827 - NSN, 69 cal., 35 1/8 inch part octagon bbl., brown/bright/silver finish, walnut stock. At first glance, this miquelet appears to be Spanish in origin given the Madrid style stock, and it was identified as Spanish when it was featured on page 536 of “The William M. Locke Collection”
by Frank Sellers and page 146 of the 1971 “Antique Arms Annual” in the article “William M. Locke and His Collection” by R.L. Wilson. The Italian and Spanish gunmakers had a lot of overlap in style in this period, but incredible chiseled steel is a feature strongly associated with the Italian masters, and this gun certainly has plenty of amazing metalwork. This incredibly ornate sporting gun has a sunken golden “M FONZO” maker’s mark on the breech end of the barrel, and Matteo Fonzo of Naples appears to have been active from the late 1790s to the 1840s. Additionally, the inside of the lock is signed “CAMERCHIOLI” and dated “1827,” and the inside of the bow is signed and dated “Lupi/incise/1827.” Camerchioli’s identity remains unknown, but former owner and renowned arms and art collector Peter Tillou indicated that Gaetano Lupi was a Neapolitan silversmith who died in 1852. The overall quality of the combined work
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is extraordinary, and this fine sporting gun certainly ranks among the finest of all Italian arms extant. It was attributed as produced for Carlo Filangieri, Prince of Satriano, Duke di Taormina (1784-1867) by Tillou. Filangieri’s father, Gaetano Filangieri, Prince of Satriano, was a Neapolitan lawyer, art historian, and Enlightenment philosopher. Naples was
the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The younger Filangieri was an accomplished soldier, military leader, statesman, and reformer. He was defensive of his fellow Neapolitans, and killed General Franches in a duel after the Frenchman insulted the Neapolitans. He fought under Napoleon and Joachim in the French and Neapolitan armies, inherited the title of Prince of Satriano in 1819, supported the Constitutionalists, commanded the Neapolitan army in 1831 at the request of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, put down a rebellion in 1848 and 1849 and was therefore granted the title of Duke of Taormina, served as a governor of Sicily until 1855, and was briefly Prime Minister and Minister of War under Ferdinand II’s successor, Francisco II. He was ordered to leave Naples and traveled to Marseilles and Florence. He died at his villa of San Giorgio a Cremano not far from Naples.