Prince Albert and his brother Ernest were accomplished shots from an early age, participating in the allied local traditions of game shooting (in Coburg principally hare, pheasant and deer) and target shooting or marksmanship with rifles. Following his arrival in England, Prince Albert tended to favour the best English makers, chiefly Charles Lancaster, for his working guns, many of which he received as birthday or Christmas gifts from the Queen and which remain in the Royal Collection at Windsor.

The tradition of gunmaking in Coburg is closely linked to the history of the dukedom of Saxe-Coburg. In earlier times this meant the provision of military weapons, and the armoury of the Veste Coburg remains among the largest in Germany. In the modern period the emphasis was on sporting and presentation weapons. Guns in the latter category tended not to be used in the field, and therefore allowed the maker to deploy the costliest materials and most ambitious ornamentation.

Caspar Georg Koenig (1793-1857) and his two sons, Julius (c.1822-55) and Gustav (c.1826-60), served Prince Albert's father Ernest I and his son and successor, Prince Albert's brother Ernest II (1818-93), as court rifle makers (hofbüchsenmacher). The decoration of these superb guns are very close in spirit to the Gothic ‘dialect’ employed in the remodelling of the Coburg palaces, the Ehrenburg and the Rosenau, by the architect André-Marie Renié-Grétry, based in turn on the work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841). .

The pattern-welded and browned barrels of the gun are likewise overlaid with gold and the stock inlaid with engraved silver, interspersed with a fox, a pheasant, a hound and a stag inlaid in engraved mother-of-pearl. The lock and trigger guard are overlaid in gold with further animals, including pheasants, rabbits, grouse and hounds.

Signed on lock: C. G. Koenig & Soehne in Coburg; engraved inside lock: 1854; on top of barrels in gold in Gothic script: C.G. Koenig & Soehne; stamped under barrels at breech end: JJD; stamped with Liège proof marks.

Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010