Honey, I Shrunk the Guns: A Collector’s Guide to the Fully Functional Miniature Firearms

The work of the Colombian master Antonio Rincon can illustrate the second item. To date, he is the undisputed leader in the decorating of his miniatures. He has made six pairs of dueling pistols in one-third and one-fourth scale (as well as many other types of handguns and rifles). To show his attention to detail and ornamentation, here is his description of a pair of dueling pistols that he made, patterned after a pair that the ancient master Boutet made. Boutet was the special gun maker for the French Emperor, Napoleon. Rincon crafts guns of great beauty, modeled after the period of Napoleon, and their firing system is designed to be the same as it was in those days.

«The precision in the details of these miniatures is admirable. The total length of each pistol is 5.12 inches. The stocks are made of maple from the United States, and they are beautifully inlaid and engraved with scroll designs, as well as a Greek frieze and the silver fleurs-de-lis that adorn the butt-plates. The steel barrels, 3.15 inches long, are octagonal and «swamped», meaning that they open out at the mouth. Two gold rings decorate the mouth, and inlays of gold and silver ornament their whole length. Diamond shapes, floral designs, and other designs let the matt blue of the barrels stand out and contrast with the darkness of the wood that supports them, making these pistols special collection pieces.

A wooden case 6.69 inches long, lined in red leather, guards: the pistols; a canister for oil to lubricate the mechanisms; a bullet extractor; two ramrods; and a mallet to drive the balls into the barrel, as they were an exact fit, to avoid the escape of gases. Also forming part of the accessories were: an additional ramrod for cleaning powder residue from the bore; a hammer with a cutting edge to sharpen flints; a silver powder flask with automatic measuring device and engraved baroque designs; a screw-driver decorated in the style of Boutet with a fleur-de-lis of silver on its African ebony handle».

This carbine was exhibited in the NRA show held in Saint Louis, Missouri, April 13-15, 2007. It was offered for sale at Greg Martin Auctions of New York and San Francisco. It was handmade by Antonio Rincon using the finest gold, ivory, silver, ebony, tortoise shell, and silk filament velvet cloth materials.

The overall length is 15 inches, with a 9-inch octagonal hooked-breech barrel, poly groove rifled to approximately .18 caliber, and stippled to a fine granular ground along the entire length. It is decorated at the breach with an elaborate damascened panel of engraved gold-work depicting panoplies of arms, crossed canons and flags, classical motifs of Grecian-styled urns ushering forth clouds of incense, and Masonic symbols of flaming orbs. It is struck six times with the cartouches of Nicolas Boutet, Jean le Clerc, and BC (unknown), LC B, LC NB BOUTET BC.

At the muzzle are two gold panel sections connected by an orderly array (semee) of 398 five-pointed gold stars, of one 32nd of an inch, and numbered on the right-most flat between two stars 216. The touch hall is lined with a large oval panel of gold. The barrel is finished with a finely polished steel foresight and blade rear sight, and has an engraved, polished-steel breech tang with high-relief gold work. The lock plate is polished steel and inscribed: Boutet à Versailles, with a high relief gold work depicting a sphinx and classical faces. The pan has gold drapery, and the lock set a swan-necked cock with gold high-relief putti carrying a smoking torch. There is a screw-adjustable set-trigger.

The gold counter-plate depicts a medieval boar hunt with three mounted riders and one man on foot thrusting boar-spears into the defeated boar while attendants hold hunting dogs off to the side. The stock is carved from Zaire Ebony with molded borders, foliate flourishes, and intricate scrolls. It is extensively inlaid with engraved gold panels. The butt stock has complicated panels depicting a mythological bare-breasted sphinx issuing forth fire and smoke, and surmounted by a flaming orb, within a surround of gold-work panels forming delicate scrolls, meandering foliage, and decorative embellishments. A gold escutcheon plate at the wrist is set within a frame of carved ebony.

The pistol-grip is formed as an elaborate carved ivory female dragon form (wyvern or sea-serpent) beast breathing fire over a scroll, which forms the base for the trigger guard strap. A cheek-piece carved with high-relief scrolls is surrounded by an intricately carved doughnut-shaped insert of ebony at its terminus and embellished with finely carved rope and floral molded borders. A gilt-silver butt plate is decorated with a Medusa Head, Classical Armor, Small Dragons, and Foliate motifs, and is struck three times with silver-maker’s hallmarks. An elaborate brocade of pierced gold concentric circles sets it off. The butt plate mounting screws are polished and engraved.

The solid gold trigger guard, is struck with maker’s hall marks and the rear strap is decorated with the Medusa Head at bow, a pair of pseudo-ancient Egyptian dogs’ heads at the juncture of the bow and strap lead to a figure of the goddess Diana, who with her bow and hunting dog completes the trigger guard fore-strap. The gold fore-end cup is decorated with a fox with its paw caught in a trap (after paintings by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 1686-1755). The oval medallion form held within an eagle’s upswept wings forms the frame for that panel.

We don’t know how much this work of art was sold for, but the master won’t be able to recreate such a masterpiece in a short time, and he certainly won’t sell it cheaply. Even serial models of miniature guns for sale can cost tens of thousands of dollars if they belong to well-known manufacturers and are produced in a souvenir version, using precious materials.