The support stand on this target gun is in the form of a taloned eagle’s claw grasping a ball, a reference to the Guild of Arquebusiers in Amsterdam. Civic guardsmen would grasp the support with their left hand, while pressing their left elbow into their side. The gun has a tinder lock, which uses a piece of smouldering dried fungus, rather than a slow match, to ignite the powder.
Target gun or target rudder. The yellow copper lock shows traces of earlier gilding; the lock plate is finished with copper; the pan rests on a base in the shape of a seashell. The barrel is ribbed and grooved on the back; the square trumpet is shaped like a Corinthian column; the sight and grain are made of yellow copper. The stock is inlaid with mother of pearl and carved in relief with foliage, snakes and dolphins; the support bobbin for the trigger guard ends in a bird's claw around a ball that is flattened at the bottom. Apart from the cow horn drawer hood, the fittings are of previously gilded yellow brass and consist of a screw plate engraved with a name, and a butt plate with a spur across the entire handle; the ramrod has an iron cover.
length 163.8 cm
length barrel 124.6 cm
diameter 10.9 mm
weight 6.8 kg
Purchased from the H.L. Visser Collection, with the support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Ministerie van OCenW, the Ministerie van Defensie, the VSBfonds, the BankGiro Lottery and the Rijksmuseum Fonds
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search...G-2002-23-14,2