A fine Bavarian haquebut/wall gun, 1520's
 

In former postings I enlosed pictures of my gothic iron barrels; you can see two of them on the wall, above the haquebut at the bottom to be discussed today.

This heavy piece (12 kilos) is mounted with an earlier wrought iron barrel bearing an anonymous Nuremberg so-called house mark found on similar barels in many German and Austrian museums. The barrel retains its blackened finish and some of its original minium (red lead) paint. The stylistic criterion of the short, heavily swamped, crown like muzzle section (maximilianischer Krönleinkopf) allows an unusually exact dating of the barrel's origin: ca. 1495. Interesting enough it retains its original long rear socket. This is where the first stock of tiller form had been shoved in and nailed to - cf. the detail of exactly this type of gun from the Maximilianische Zeugbücher, ca. 1505-07, given below.

Actually there is still a portion of the first tiller stock left in the socket although the barrel was restocked in ash wood in its present form during the German peasant wars in the 1520's. Stocks of this type are known from illustrations by Erhard Schön, Nuremberg, 1533. The full stock is well made, with finely carved stages, and bears various simple owners markings. Only in the rear section of the buttstock there is some worm damage.

The piece never had a lock although they were widely in use in those times; it had to be fired by means of an igniting iron or match cord.

And there is a highly interesting story to it which is absolutely true:

This piece, together with five almost identical more, was discovered behind a wall hiding a small room in 1953 when the castle of Kronburg near Memmingen/Bavaria had to be restored after damages from WW II. I spoke to the present Graf there and he told me that his uncle had discovered those 6 haquebuts mounted standing upright on the wall, the buttstocks resting on a strong wooden board. They had been left in that room and bricked up for hundreds of years - which doubtlessly accounts for their excellent untouched condition. Imagine ...

As the owners of Schloss Kronburg were short of money they sold many arms at auction in Cologne in October 1951, including my piece. There is an old b/w photograph taken by the auction house which shows a selection of arms, with two of the six haquebuts standing at the extreme right.

I bought my haquebut when the heirs of the purchaser of 1951 deaccessioned of it six years ago, which makes me the third owner in the history of this perfectly preserved 500 year old piece . Tell me: how often does such an opportunity occur?!

Michael

Here is the rest of the images.

The b/w photo shows the Schloss Kronburg auction arrangement in Cologne of 1953 (BTW, the year when I was born), plus a detail of a few of those six haquebus in the right.

The first watercolor from the Maximilianisches Zeugbuch vol. I shows two iron haquebuts with tiller stocks - this is what my haquebut looked like when first issued in about 1495.

The second watercolor from the same manuscript depicts three haquebuts with mode modern full stocks resembling the present stock of my gun which was made in the 1520's.

Michael

Please notice the detail of the barrelsmith's mark at the top of my preceeding posting.

Here is a view of Schloss Kronburg where my haquebut had been preserved for at least 400 years.

Michael

The maker's mark and the touch hole
 

Sorry, folks,

I showed the wrong mark.

Now here are the touch hole details - and the actual mark.

Note the remarkable cracks in the 500 year old iron in front of the touch hole; these are often found with such old barrels and are due both to the poor iron quality and the forging techniques of the period. Nevertheless, this piece withstood the heavy loads.

Michael

Similar stocked haquebuts/hackbuts employed in defending a sieged town, are illustrated in Diebold Schilling's Berne Chronicle, 1483.

m