Nice item, it's always worth keeping your wits about yourself in salerooms, you never know when something's going to slip through.
Looks to be 19th C. Most of the English stonebows tended to be open on the top, in a similar style to a crossbow, the difference being that the 'string' had a pouch / cup in the centre to hold the projectile. I think the barrel is more of a continental style.
The book, The Crossbow, by R. Payne-Gallway is probably one of the best sources of information and I'm sure that it has been 'digitised' and probably available for free out there if you do a search.
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