A 1548 Nuremberg Dagger-grip Over-and-Under Double Wheellock Pistol

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Marcus den toom

Don't mean to interupt your personal discussion but am i right to assume that the developement of butstocks was gradually? From the dagger grip of the early 1510-30 the fishtale butstock of 1530ish to 1560ish and the pommel variation like those on the trabanter leibgart (like those of Augustus I, earliest know of those is 1586, last year of Augustus his reign)

I also found a few pictures like this (presumably) Dutch wheel lock with Spanish barrel.


The detached lock as discribed by Michael


A pistol with first signs of a rounded nob/pommel (?), gilded and decorated with plaques of ivory




I will look up the books etc later

Yes, Marcus,


Like any other development, that of buttstocks also went gradually. It would take more than one comprehensive thread to go into details, though.

Do you think that the first pistol you illustrated, ca. 1555-60, is of Dutch origin? Possibly. It is kept in the Royal Armouries Leeds after it was found by an elderly lady in her house and handed over in sheer panic (!) to the London Metropolitan police ... The Royal Armouries and I think it is of English make.

The highly decorated pistol, ca. 1550, its full stock completely veneered with real ivory, indeed marks the first stage of that special thickened buttstock that, in the course of the 1570's, led to the late-16th(early 17th c. ball-butted puffers. This fine piece belonged to a certain Freiherr Teufel von Gunderdorf, and is preserved in the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin; sadly both your images are mirror-inverted, so this was not the pistol of a left-handed gentleman, as one might get misled to think.



Best,
Michael