A rare south German 28-bore wheel-lock holster pistol (puffer) With two-stage barrel chiselled with acanthus at the slightly flared muzzle, girdle and at the back of the octagonal breech, the chiselling retaining traces of gilding, the top flat at the breech stamped with Augsburg mark and makers mark of Bernhard Albrecht, tang punched with foliage, plain flat lock with circular wheel-retaining bracket pierced and engraved with a pair of foliate monsters and retained by two screws, plain cock acting against a chiselled spring, the baluster bracket with tapering baluster terminal, sprung sliding pan-cover with release button formed as a screw, engraved safety-catch acting against a chiselled external spring, the bracket with terminal en suite, ebonised full stock profusely inlaid with engraved white staghorn or bone panels in the manner of the so-called Master of the Castles including a Classical warrior standing on a pedestal above a mask along the back of the butt, a pair of female figures flanking the tang, two male figures in contemporary costume along the underside, a human mask between, and on the side-flat with a cartouche framing a Classical battle scene, a figure in combat with an animal and a townscape on either side, all between horn lines and borders engraved with scrollwork and cabling, compressed ball-pommel inlaid with horn roundels engraved with male and female portrait busts between plain and cabled lines, and bound with five gilt-copper straps chased with a repeated design of strapwork, basal collar en suite, and with gilt roundel-cap cast with two Classical horsemen in combat over a Herculean figure, slender iron trigger-guard, gilt trigger, horn ramrod-pipes engraved with grotesque masks, fore-end cap engraved with scrolls, and ramrod with foliate engraved horn tip. Barrel Length - 29.5cm. Overall Length - 48cm.