A very fine Tusco-Emilian snap matchlock Landsknecht's harquebus, ca. 1525

[Matchlock]

And an insight into the - most probánly interchangeable! - blade aperture.

Michael

[Pukka Bundook]

Michael,

Thank you for your answers.

I am still non-plussed by the wood spliced in, on the gun from the tower. ..(With the new-made lock)
If the pan was not originally fitted to the lock, the only other alternative I can think of, is that the stock was re-used, and fitted with the present barrel and lock. The stock appears to have had wood spliced in, ahead of the present lock, as well as above it, under the pan.

I suppose recoil damage could be the reason for the wood being added, but it doesn't really add up.

Re. the flash fence; It is interesting to see the developement of the flash-fence, over an approximate ten year period, from the very small fence, on your Pilsen tubelock of 1525-30, and the one on the Nuremburg of 1539,...fully fledged!
Re. aperture sights, made between 1530's and 1540's;
This is a very modern sight, I wonder why it fell into dis-favour?
I have seen this sight used later, but they were added to target guns and rifles, in the late 1500's. These target rifles appear to have been of an old fashioned form when made, but could possibly have been made that way to fulfill the requirements of a certain target class.
These guns were generally highly decorted and expensive, and it is on these later guns I have usually seen the replaceable sights.

On your last pictures Michael, the tunnel appears to have ben "staked"..as in punch marks in the top, to apparently hold the sight. Is this correct?

All best!

R.

[Matchlock]

Richard,

I am sorry to learn that my reply on the Tower/RA harquebus has not been able to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. I cannot explain for the sliced in pieces of wood any better, though. Blaming it on possibble recoil damages does not make much sense, I, too, am afraid.

You are definitely right in attributing tubular back sights mostly to target shooting; I have seen such oversized sights placed on matchlock, wheel-lock, and flintlock guns apparantly re-used for target shooting. Of course, these are mostly 19th century crude alterations.

I also agree that the use of replaceable aperture blade sights was the anticipation of a very modern feature long ago. The only reason I can think of why that idea was dropped for centuries is that the guns of those time periods just did not hit well enough to catch up with the exactly cut aperture sights.

You are, in my opinion, also right in commenting on the two staked punches on top of the back sight in order to hold the aperture in place. Of course, it was no longer easliy interchangeable after the staking.

Thank you for paying such detailed attention to my posts, my friend!

All the best,
m

[Pukka Bundook]

Good morning, Michael.

I am not dissatisfied with your answer re. the wood spliced in on the 'tower' harquebus, it seems to me though, there is more to it and some things remain unexplained.
Re. the tubular back sights with a 'peep aperture, I am sure some of these are more modern add-ons, as you state, and crudely done.
I was really meaning the original ones, made and fitted to target arms in the late 1500's and early 1600's
From what I have read, some of these arms turned out surprising degrees of accuracy!.........Much better than military arms made two centuries later!

For instance, at a target shoot in Basel Switzerland in 1605, the targets fired at with smooth-bored targets guns, were about 75cm in diameter, (30")
and the range was 190 yds, or about 170-odd Metres.

For rifled arms, the target was 1 metre (roughly 40") in diameter, and range was 268 yds, or roughly 242 metres!
At this shoot, only cheek-stocks were allowed, with no resting of stock against the shoulder,...and fired off-hand.

Even today, such shooting is above what many can accomplish!

Re. the staked in aperture,
Maybe it would be better to refer to it as replaceable, rather than adjustable?
If it was found to work well, leave it alone, if it didn't, wack it out and try again!.......do you think?

With very best wishes,

Richard.

[Matchlock]

Exactly, Richard.

I fully agree with each single point you made.

Thanks a lot!

Michael

[Matchlock]

A 1530's matchlock harquebus with blued iron parts, brass tunnel back sight and heavily swamped muzzle section, the stock left 'in the white'!!!!

Detail of a painting of the Resurrection by Simon Franck, ca. 1540, in the basilica of Aschaffenburg/Northern Bavaria.

Michael

[Matchlock]

A 1530's matchlock harquebus with blued iron parts, brass tunnel back sight and heavily swamped muzzle section, the stock left 'in the white'!!!!

Detail of a painting of the Resurrection by Simon Franck, ca. 1540, in the basilica of Aschaffenburg/Northern Bavaria.

Michael

[Matchlock]

Here's the pic.

[cornelistromp]

Hi Michael,

what a beautiful and extremely rare range do you have, absolutely amazing, that is what I still miss in my collection!....

re: Emelia blade marks
I have added a few pictures. Boccia 199 200, wallace A744 745 746 , sword end 15thC

Best regards

[Matchlock]

Thank you so much, Cornelis,

These marks add greatly to the documentation of my Brescian harquebus!

Best,
Michael

[cannonmn]

Michael wrote:

As you have been pressing me (thanks a lot) you will be glad to learn that I have been planning to write a book on my collection and on earliest arsenal firearms and accouterments of ca. 1330-1700 in general, with tons of photos and setting up new, exact and transferable dating criteria - which really would be something never tried by anyone before. 30 years of experience, some 3,000 books and more than 280,000 photos taken in museums all over Europe, including England, and a lot of help from my friends should really suffice to make it a good book. Let's wait and see. A whole lot of work lies before me.

Well Michael, if it has been completed, please tell me how to order one! If not, here is more encouragement, I will make an advance reservation for my copy. I'm certain due to the high cost of putting color photos in hard-copy books, that you would consider an accompanying DVD with the thousands of photos on it. I have seen this done very successfully in a recent book by the Spanish Ministry of Defense on Spanish Naval Cannons. Not only can many more color photos be inserted, but they can be life-sized if desired to maximize detail. The reader has to scroll around to see it all unless they have a room-sized computer screen, but it is certainly worth the effort for large-format original documents, for example.

[Matchlock]

Hi John,

I am still trying to find an editor and adding a cd with tons of images has been part of my plans. We're on the same page.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Please also see:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ingrove+museum

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Here are some finely decorated wrought-iron Italian (Brescia made) barrels from snap-matchlock or snap-tinderlock Landsnecht arquebuses.
The were all wrought three-staged, with a rear and forward stages both heavily swamped and the central stage notable thinner. All of these barrels were of round section throughout.
The complete guns looked quite similar to the one shown at the beginning of this thread.


All of them are iron carved in high relief, against a ground which originally was blackened for contrast. With top quality, the ground was dotted and in some cases gilt.

There is also a large group of contemporary Italian maces known with iron-carved decorated in the same style.

As the walls of these barrels had unusually thick walls they were often re-used over centuries and consequently undergone severel alterations.
These heavily altered barrels often show up at Italian auctions.
E.g., the igniting pans that originally were dove tailed at the right-hand side were removed when the barrels were restocked together with wheellock or flintlock machanisms.


Originally, all these short and stout barrels barrels had a relatively small bore of ca. 14 to 16 mm; in later times, and because their walls were thick enough, the bores were mostly enlarged up to ca. 20 mm.

Originally, they were attached to the stock just by means of a wood screw entering from above through the short barrel tang, and by a transversal wooden pin that went through a dovetailed loop at the underside of the barrel, just in front of the swamped forward section which was left unstocked.

Also, they originall were equipped with tubular rear sights that were in most cases put over two dovetailed short iron pins or feet; the top side of these feet was v-shaped for sighting, and the foresight was a small dovetailed iron bead.

The ramrod channel was drilled extending to the rear as far as about 5 to 10 cms, thus allowing the wooden ramrod to protrude not as as far as the forward section of the barrel. The idea was to prevent the ramrod from damage or breaking as the forestock ended in front of the swamped muzzle section und the ramrod would have remined unprotected.
The wooden ramrod was usually equipped with an iron finial at both ends, with the one at the rear threaded to receive a scourer or a worm (ball extractor).

The latest of these barrels seem to have been made in ca. 1550/60; they look much more slender though and are notably longer.


Please also cf. my threads

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlock+arquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlock+arquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...lock+harquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...lock+harquebus




and also see
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...805#post173805

on iron carved Italian maces.




Best,
Michael

[Pukka Bundook]

The following photos were taken by Herman Historica, when this snap matchlock came up for sale, in November, 2017.

These pictures are attached for posterity and in memory of our good friend and teacher, Michael Tromner.

[Pukka Bundook]

The rest;

[fernando]

Excelent pictures; excelent gun ... and an excelent tribute, Richard .