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Old 4th May 2009, 07:48 PM   #2
Matchlock
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
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Hi Fernando,

Let me please thank you for posting that really important thread.

I must admit that I have almost never encountered any more detailed differentiation than the one you gave us to tell "bombards" from "handguns": the first are usually identified by their traditionally added lips or priming pans, as well as by their notably swamped rear ends which so to speak seem to have predestined them for standing upright when being fired. That may also account for their more familiar names, such as "little noisemakers" and Böller (German alpine regions). On this basis I should suggest a date of 16th-18th century for your copper alloy cast piece.

The second sample illustrated by you may even come from the Aljubarrrota battle field (Portugal, August 14, 1385). I should like to back up that assumed provenance as, like in on the example in my collection, the small touch hole is placed near the rear end and the overall appearance of the little barrel is apt for being fixed to an iron stick stock by iron bands.

Any more comments on these forms are highly welcome by anybody out there! Those items are quite commonly around, most of them never actually having been disposed of.

Michael
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