Definitely wasn't made for a farmer. Can you post photo of the lock and cheekpiece. This would be a great piece forover a fireplace. Very cool. The family crests might answer who the owner was. The maker had to have left his marksomewhere. Are there proofs on the barrel?
More photos will be great. Detailed shots are nice, but shots which show more of the rifle would be wonderful. These leave me wondering what the rest of it is like! Thanks for posting.Jim
Is it just me or does the bow and grip rail design of that guard look out of place? It's looks later than the remainder of the gun, which actually looks fairly early. It almost looks like (perhaps) there was damage to the guard at some point and a new, later piece was joined onto the fore and aft finials at both the forward 'post' and rear finger tab.Wonderful piece but that guard has been bugging me. Could be wrong.
There appears to be a considerable gap with the inletting around the front finial.It is a beautiful rifle in any case.
Schmetser is the maker and he was located in the town of Eisenach within Thüringen Germany.I can't find anything about him online.
Any ideas on the approximate date of manufacture of the rifle.