A blunderbuss with an early lock

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Pukka Bundook

... this swivel on your blunderbuss is Exactly of the type fitted to the guns carried on British mail coaches...
The sling worked in a manner similar to a carbine sling, over the shoulder with the gun hanging down on the opposite side ...As an experiment, run a cord through the loop and suspend it over your shoulder and see how it hangs. :

I know it works fine the way you mention, Richard; i was only realizing that it can also hang from different spots. In my eyes i don't see this particular gun in so formal service, but more like a private weapon. But it is only my imagination ... at least so far.

[Pukka Bundook]

Iskender,

Thank you for the explanation!! I had some of it from German hunting book, and it Still confuses me!

Fernando,

Yes, as you suggest, it could be hung from anything with this butterfly swivel, and I also believe you are right regarding it being a private weapon.

Still, such a swivel was very useful, see below;

[IMG][/IMG]

[fernando]

Quite nice, thanks. Mine hangs vertically ...

.

[Philip]

Fernando,
The dog-lock on your gun is considerable interest. This type is most associated with England, mid-to-latter 17th cent. There is an example whose cock jaw screw has a ring terminus, as on a miquelet, on a musket ca. 1650 in the Tower of London collection (now Royal Armouries Mus.), inv. no. XII-48. The lock on that gun, however, is of more archaic form than yours since it has a 3-bolt attachment to the stock, not the 2 as on yours. The shape of its plate is also patterned after that of the earlier snaphaunce, whereas your blunderbuss' lockplate is the more usual "French" type that became standard as the 17th cent. drew to a close.

The use of the dog-lock also spread to northern Germany. The Livrustkammaren in Stockholm has two pieces relevant to your lock, albeit in very decorative, luxus-sporting guise -- a detached lock signed Paul Rolof, Stettin (now a part of Poland), ca. 1680, and a complete rifle by Berndt Orther, also of Stettin but a decade later. The shape of the cock and lockplate on both are very similar to the mechanism on your gun, but the jaw screw terminates in a slotted bulb, not ring. These German locks also feature a 2-bolt attachment to the stock.

So these examples help corroborate the attribution of last quarter of 17th cent. to the lock on your gun. It could be an outlier of slightly later date from a very conservative area, but considering that the true flintlock with internal half-cock safety had started to become more and more popular after the mid-17th cent., I rather doubt that dog-lock manufacture persisted much after ca. 1700.

The examples referenced above can be seen in H. L. Blackmore, GUNS AND RIFLES OF THE WORLD (1965). Also, it is worth noting from Torsten Lenk's writing (THE FLINTLOCK, Swedish edition 1939, English 2007) that the dog lock was NOT the predecessor to the "true" flintlock -- it existed contemporaneously to it, and appeared AFTER the latter came into existence.

[corrado26]

The use of the dog-lock also spread to northern Germany.

Not only was used the dog lock in northern Germany but also in southern Germany and in Austria. The pistol with the dog lock is a cuirassier pistol M 1729 of Saxony and the carbine is an Austrian cavalry carbine M 1789.
corrado26