Extremely rare and fine parade tool of a gunsmith foreman
Italy (Brescia?), last quarter 16th cent., signed Casamitlana.

Length retracted: 19,5 cm
Weight: 242 g

Provenance: Collection Luigi Nessi, Lugano.
sold

This tool is elaborately ornamented with grotesques, scrollwork and creatures by using the tecniques of engraving, chiselling and steel cutting. There is also the sun symbol and the signature CASAMITLANA. Manufacturing such a tool back in the sixteenth century was a very expensive effort. Therefore it can be assumed that this piece was made for a foreman. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York there is a drawing, that shows designs for comparable but less splendidly decorated tools.