A unique bronze barrel wall gun (doppelter Doppelhaken), Nuremberg, ca. 1515-20

[Matchlock]

The remaining details, and author's photos in the Hohenlohe Castle from 2000.

[Matchlock]

Another contemporary brass barreled Doppelhaken, Nuremberg, still in the Hohenlohe Collection, retaining its original though damaged oaken stock.
Please note that the upper line of the butt stock is exactly on the same level as the top flat of the barrel.
Author's photos.

[Matchlock]

The Nuremberg Doppelhaken dated 1537, when still in the long exhibition hall of Hohenlohe Castle.
Contrary to the the opinion uttered in Thomas Del Mar's catalog description, the author is convinced that the stock was the original.

The barrelsmith's mark struck three time in the Gothic tradition was identified and termed by the author as that of the Nuremberg worksphop of the "Meister mit den gekreuzten Pfeilen" (Master of the Crossed Arrows).
It belonged to an obviously very prolific workshop which is known to have concentrated on the manufacture of cranequins for crossbows from at least the 1520's.
In 40 years of research, the author has documemted 16 cranequins in museums, private collections, at dealers and auction houses, the earliest of them ca. 1520-25; the earliest dated cranequin struck with this mark, 1532, formerly was in the author's collection and is now in a Bavarian private collection, together with other cranequins from the same workshop, dated 1540 and 1545 respectively.

From ca. the mid-1530's, that workshop seems to also have manufactured wrought iron barrels.
The barrel of another, almost identical wall gun still preserved at Schloss Hohenlohe bears the same mark and identical date 1537 - please see atts. to follower post.


Author's photos.

[Matchlock]

Attached here is another detail of the muzzle section of the gun discussed in the previous post.


A matchlock barrel in the Landeszeughaus Graz, inv.no. RG 2 in Robert Brooker's Eine Radschloss-Sammlung - A Wheellock Collection, 2007, mounted on a later stock, and together with a ca. 1535-40 wheellock mechanism, is struck with that mark and the date 1537 (definitely misread as 1527 in Brooker) - see author's photos from 2005 attached.

Two important matchlock arquebuses, the barrels struck twice wit that crossed arrows mark and the date 1539, are in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, inv.no. W 494, and in the author's collection respectively - see:
post #66 in this thread,
and
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...harquebus+1539
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...harquebus+1539

For cranequins with that mark dated 1532, 1540 and 1545 respectively, see:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...cranequin+1532
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...cranequin+1532
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...cranequin+1532
and attachment to post #70 in this thread.


Attached are photos of another, almost identical wall gun still preserved in the Hohenlohe-Langenburg collection, the barrel struck with the same mark and the identical date 1537; most probably, the stock is the original although figured slightly diferent from that of the first piece.

Author's photos.

[Matchlock]

Three more close-ups of the muzzle section.

Author's photos.

[Matchlock]

The description and images from Tom Del Mar's catalog.

[Matchlock]

A close comparison of the pan and cover of the Doppelhaken dated 1537 sold at Tom del Mar shows that when the author photographed it, the cover was not yet bent - the way it was by the time of the sale.

First two photos attached copyrighted by the author, the others copyrighted by Thomas Del Mar Ltd.