Jason Clarke Antiques has dated this piece to the 1880s.
In order to use it, the ring catch is pulled which releases the seat and allows it to pivot ninety degrees and it locks into position.
The seat contains a metal plaque engraved to Gottlieb Van Meenen’s DR Patent 10968.
The base of the stick has a point for putting in the ground and a metal ferrule to keep it from sinking further than the required amount.
Excepting the seat arrangement, this shooting stick or “hunting seat” is similar in style to its successors but this is an extremely early example and was perhaps the template for the design that has remains in production today.
The English shooting stick manufacturer Tirion was formed by French émigré, Victor Alexis Noirit, a saddler who initially arrived in London and moved to Walsall. It is not known exactly when Noirit produced his first shooting stick but they are the first company to have lodged a UK patent for them in 1921, forty years after Van Meenen’s design was lodged with the Deutsche Reich Patent Office in Berlin.
This is perhaps one of the earliest examples of the style.
The original patent is provided below and the related figures are provided with the images.
“Patent Specification - No: 10,968 – Klasse 33
Gottlieb Van Meenen in Cologne (Koln a Rhine)
Hunting Seat
Patented in Deutschen Reich on the 12th March 1880
The innovations are the one-piece seat flap A and its flap mechanism.
This mechanism is formed by the closing latch B with the locking ring C, the snap catch D, the spiral spring E and the fittings G and H on the plate F in the brackets PQ and R.
In the flap A there are two openings J and K, of which the former forms the handle S, while the latter holds the access ring C.
In the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a pulling with the index finger on the ring C pulls the closing latch B with its front bolt-like end from the opening L and the spring E is tensioned, as a result of which the flap A is now in the hinges Let N and O turn.
As soon as the tension on the rings stops, the tensioned spring E pushes the bolt forward again, so that when the handle is turned 90 degrees, the nose D snaps into the opening M and holds the seat in the position shown in FIG. 3.
Reverse manipulation loosens the hook, turns the flap back and snaps the bolt at L.
Patent claims:
The seat plate F made with a single piece and with a central pivot point
The determination of the seat plate F in its two bearings by means of a trap B and spiral spring E.”
Circa 1880.
Jason Clarke Antiques has dated this piece to the 1880s.
You can view the stock and full dealer information on the Jason Clarke Antiques Profile Page
Early Patent Shooting Stick by Gottlieb Van Meenen of Cologne 1880
