auction arquebuse
 

Be careful - the date is wrong:
http://www.sangiorgioaste.com/eng-si...+A+MICCIA&ris=

Thank you for posting this one, Alexander!

This interesting arquebus was sold San Giorgio Aste, Genova, Italy, in March 2010.

What I can say about this piece:

As Alexander brilliantly noted the date 'late 16th century' is way too rough to nearly get to the point.

The barrel actually seems to be from a Pilsen type long ca. 1520's snap matchlock (Nuremberg?) arquebus* - they too bear marks near the muzzle, although the present oxen head is unknown to me - , the pan is a Thirty Years War replacement (it is rectangular, with an thin wall, while the pans of 1520-30 had round troughs and rather thick walls), the pivoted cover is missing. The beechwood stock obviously dates from the later Thirty Years War (1618-48), it is very crude and the form of the belly butt is characteristic of the late 1640's to the 1650's. It is probable that the horizontal hole in the butt was for placing a finger there in order to directing the aiming of the gun while the transversal iron bar thru the forestock was most probably meant ro be stabilized in some kind of rest. Also the highly remarkable underside of the butt indented for fingers - a design known from the 'fingered' trigger guards of contemporary wheel-locks - certainly denotes the way the stock was handled. The barrel tang is from the time of re-stocking, this barrel originally had no or just a very short tang.

Another remarkable feature is that the long muzzle section (Mündungskopf) is not enclosed by the forestock. As I pointed out in earlier threads, this is a stylistic detail typical of German 1520's-30's barrels, as are the incised dividing lines. Interestingly enough, the stock maker of the 1640's respected this early feature; he doubtlessly knew the original stock which he replaced - and respectfully took this late Gothic stylistic detail over from his long gone by predecessor! :)

Please cf. my thread on my ca. 1640 Regensburg heavy haquebut using a re-stocked ca. 1490 Nuremberg barrel:



Like Fernando, I feel that links to other sites should not become regular here; copying the pics and posting them would be much better and more polite to fellow members; so this is what I did. I also reworked them the best I could. ;)

* Please see my former thread on the Pilsen snap matchlock arquebuses.

Best,
Michail

These are the remnants of the original 1520's long block back sight removed later!

Best,
Michael

That's what the back sight originally looked like - detail of a ca. 1530 barrel.

Michael

For a similar piece with an even older barrel re-stocked in ca. 1640 from my collection, please see

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10481

Please note the same belly butt characteristic of the 1640's.

Best,
Michael