Would you care for a (special) Port ?
 

Specially bottled in 1997,for the Portuguese Academy of Antique Arms, at its 25th aniversary. The label is illustrated with a magnificent 'Molinhas' flintlock, dated 1717, made by the gunmakers and authors of the unique book Espingarda Perfeyta.

Fernando

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Yuk, :p Port!

I like a good Scotch better!

Neat job on PSPing the image though :)

It was no easy job; but i prefered to do that than to tear the label from the bottle :eek:

I know buddy! Very neatly done, I like the technique!

LOL!!!
Fernando, you have always amazed me with the esoterica and unusual items you come up with!! and this truly has expanded the dimension of things brought up for discussion in our forum. Who would have imagined a bottle of wine! Nicely done :)

Now, any chance of finding an actual example of that lock? and learning more on the gunmakers and book you describe.

All the best,
Jim

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your enthusiastic input.

Let's see by parts:
The bottle still exists and belongs to my weapon's (not whine) collection :eek: . Although it is close to rare (only 1000 numbered units were bottled), i think i know where to find another 'copy' ;) .
I don't think this specific lock unit exists, but certainly a few of this top rare things can be found in Rainer Daehnhardt's private collection, together with thousands of other locks; he keeps an imense collection. The book was first published in 1718, a period when gunmaking was a trade of secrecy, which created a great impact, as it revealed all tricks and techniques in making all parts of a gun. The authors were three gunmaking brothers, having one avoided to figure in the book publication, for unknown reasons, and the other two having signed the book with anagrams, as was the custom. It was the most complete work ever published.
It was finally translated to english in 1974 by Rainer Daehnhadt and W. Keith Neal, a well known collector,expert and author. It was published in a bilingual version by Sothby Parke Bernet ISBN 0 85667 014 6.
Fernando

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Thank you so much Fernando, beautifully done response and thank you for the intriguing detail! I recall some years ago when Mr. Neal passed, and the auctioning of his collection seems to have gone on for some time. He was clearly not only a prolific collector, but an esteemed expert who greatly advanced the preservation of firearms history with his studies.

All the best,
Jim

so, a bit off topic, how was the contents?

i love a good port, some nice quintas out there, tho i gather they don't do them any more. i spent a week driving around the douro valley with the wife a few years back, sampling when i could ;) the wife drove then. amazing how steep are the hills they grow the grapes on. they have to wear safety lines to keep from falling when the tend or pick the grapes!

edited: just remembered, it was spring of 1997, so i may have been there when it was bottled!

The bottle is still unopened. I am not such a crazy fan of port whine and, besides, my idea was to keep it as an arms collector's item. The Douro whine region, one of the oldest demarcated whine areas in the world (1756), is still in good shape, eventually at a peak stage, in international terms. It was classified in 2001 as world heritage, by UNESCO. They have just opened a museum there. When my daughter was at the nearby university, doing her veterinary degree, i used to go there and buy home made (unlabeled, untaxed, unmachined) old port directly from the farmer's cask, to offer as courtesy to friends; stuff of the best.
Fernando

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