A bit of casual research into the common 18th and early 19th century image often used as a motif for engraving on guns, mostly on pistols as long guns tended to have sporting images, but it was used on butt tangs, Trigger bows and lock tails of ‘bullet guns’ and sporting guns occasionally – it comes in various guises, including ‘Stand of Music’ with the weapons missing and sheet music featuring prominently. The origin appears to be Hogarth’s engraving of around 1746, although whether he used an already common theme I don’t know ( he did, see below). This is the start of a collection of related gun engravings, that I’ll add to as more examples cross my path.
Here is the original engraving from Hogarth, reproduced from Wikimedia Commons
Here are a couple of earlier examples;-
This is an illustration from 1714 it has all the elements of Hogarth’s version.
This memorial dates from 1704
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