As much as I’ve learned about British and American gunmakers, there are still lots of continental makers I nothing about. Here’s one of them: a 20g Carlo Casartelli sidelock built in Brescia, Italy, and engraved by Mario Terzi. DORLEAC & DORLEAC L’ATELIER DE CHASSE in Perpignan, France, has this gun.
I think Casartelli was more of a rifle builder than a shotgun guy. Googling him turns up very little info. Master Engraver Mario Terzi is one of Italy’s most famous engravers.
As for the gun, it’s a nice Italian take on the classic British Holland & Holland-style sidelock. I love how crisp, clean, and precise everything is, and how modern the gun looks. The engraving is great spin on the typical rose & scoll patterns you see on best-quality London guns.
Here’s the info on it from the seller:
TERZI engraved Best Quality 20 GA Sidelock Ejector CARLO CASARTELLI: Chambers: 70mm / 2¾” Side by side sidelock ejector smallbore gun of an exceptional quality made by Carlo CASARTELLI in Concesio, Valle Trompia, Brescia. This Purdey double grip model is fitted with interceptor sear sidelocks and mechanical single trigger. The tumblers of the H&H pattern sidelocks have a small boss sliding in a mortise of the front attachment whose end-of-travel abuts on the mainspring upper branch ensuring their rebound out of strikers. The action, with finely edged detonators, as all the trimmings, are entirely scrolls and bouquets engraved under nitride tempered French grey finish. The outstanding quality of execution engraving bears the prestigious signature of master Mario TERZI. The 27″ game rib chopper-lump barrels, with their perfectly polished bores, are 3/10° and 5/10° at the chokes, while the hammers of the H&H ejectors hit the large rimmed cartridges extractors. The 15″ stock is cut from a splendid French walnut blank and, like the Purdey bolted forend, is finely diamond point checkered. This gun, perfectly balanced at the join, weighs 6lb. 3oz. Price: €15,000
