Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Philip · 22nd May 2010, 09:30 PM

Thanks for initiating an interesting thread. To respond to your questions and comments:
1. First off, the so-called "Japanese style" matchlock is of Indo-Portuguese origin. Japan and Korea were the last areas to receive this technology, which was a fusion of Germanic/Lusitanian/Indian elements developed at the turn of the 16th cent. An example of one of these Goanese muskets, perhaps the only published example known, is in Holger Schuckelt, DIE TUERCKISCHE CAMMER (Dresden, Sandstein 2009), cat. 60, p 79. The matchlocks of SE Asia are of Indo-Portuguese type along with many from China.
2. The woodcut illus. of the gun in your post above dates from the Ming Dynasty. Flint ignition systems were known in China (as they were in Japan) but never supplanted the matchlock in either country. There are a handful of Japanese examples, and their mechanicals are derived from Dutch-style snaphaunces. This Chinese example is interesting -- Portuguese ancestry here. The cock is powered by a mainspring outside the lockplate pushing up on the cock's tail, which is identical to the way a Hispano/Portuguese "patilha" lock (the familiar miquelet) operates. The shape of the lockplate, the angle of the cock, and the crescentic terminus of the cock jaw screw are similar to that on the Portuguese "pescoco de cavalo" (horse neck) lock, an early flint mechanism in which the mainspring has been moved inside the lockplate. The horse neck lock, which is now rare, originated in the latter 16th cent. See Rainer Daehnhardt, ESPINGARDA FEITICEIRA: A INTRODUCAO DA ARMA DE FOGO PELOS PORTUGUESES NO EXTREMO-ORIENTE (Lisboa: Texto Editora, 1994), p 100.

Also, note the shape of the stock of the gun in the picture. It is a short-butt, cheek-fired design, classic Indo-Portuguese shape. The guns made in the Malay archipelago down to the end of the 19th cent. have butts of identical shape.
3. Wheel locks were known in China, courtesy Jesuit missionaries at the court in Beijing, by the 18th cent. In the cabinet d'armes of the Qianlong emperor (r 1736-95) are several wheellock sporting guns, all of Chinese make and design, right down to the locks themselves.
4. When the Koreans (and later the Qing forces during the Kangxi reign) fought the Russians in the Primorye region, the Cossacks and other forces opposing them had guns using a type of flintlock common in Scandinavia at the time. It had an external mainspring but was stylistically distinct (and appeared to be of less substantial construction) than the Portuguese and Spanish models. The buttstocks of these guns are long, for resting against the shoulder when aiming.

This is a brief coverage of the points raised in the above posts, my apologies if I've overlooked anything. Please pose any questions and comments and I'll do my best to address them.

22nd May 2010, 09:30 PM	#5
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	Origins of match- and flint locks in E Asia Thanks for initiating an interesting thread. To respond to your questions and comments: 1. First off, the so-called "Japanese style" matchlock is of Indo-Portuguese origin. Japan and Korea were the last areas to receive this technology, which was a fusion of Germanic/Lusitanian/Indian elements developed at the turn of the 16th cent. An example of one of these Goanese muskets, perhaps the only published example known, is in Holger Schuckelt, DIE TUERCKISCHE CAMMER (Dresden, Sandstein 2009), cat. 60, p 79. The matchlocks of SE Asia are of Indo-Portuguese type along with many from China. 2. The woodcut illus. of the gun in your post above dates from the Ming Dynasty. Flint ignition systems were known in China (as they were in Japan) but never supplanted the matchlock in either country. There are a handful of Japanese examples, and their mechanicals are derived from Dutch-style snaphaunces. This Chinese example is interesting -- Portuguese ancestry here. The cock is powered by a mainspring outside the lockplate pushing up on the cock's tail, which is identical to the way a Hispano/Portuguese "patilha" lock (the familiar miquelet) operates. The shape of the lockplate, the angle of the cock, and the crescentic terminus of the cock jaw screw are similar to that on the Portuguese "pescoco de cavalo" (horse neck) lock, an early flint mechanism in which the mainspring has been moved inside the lockplate. The horse neck lock, which is now rare, originated in the latter 16th cent. See Rainer Daehnhardt, ESPINGARDA FEITICEIRA: A INTRODUCAO DA ARMA DE FOGO PELOS PORTUGUESES NO EXTREMO-ORIENTE (Lisboa: Texto Editora, 1994), p 100. Also, note the shape of the stock of the gun in the picture. It is a short-butt, cheek-fired design, classic Indo-Portuguese shape. The guns made in the Malay archipelago down to the end of the 19th cent. have butts of identical shape. 3. Wheel locks were known in China, courtesy Jesuit missionaries at the court in Beijing, by the 18th cent. In the cabinet d'armes of the Qianlong emperor (r 1736-95) are several wheellock sporting guns, all of Chinese make and design, right down to the locks themselves. 4. When the Koreans (and later the Qing forces during the Kangxi reign) fought the Russians in the Primorye region, the Cossacks and other forces opposing them had guns using a type of flintlock common in Scandinavia at the time. It had an external mainspring but was stylistically distinct (and appeared to be of less substantial construction) than the Portuguese and Spanish models. The buttstocks of these guns are long, for resting against the shoulder when aiming. This is a brief coverage of the points raised in the above posts, my apologies if I've overlooked anything. Please pose any questions and comments and I'll do my best to address them.