A Highly Interesting Regensburg Matchlock Wallgun of ca. 1640, the Barrel ca. 1490
 

I acquired this heavy and impressive wall piece more than 20 years ago.

The overall length is 123.5 cm, the barrel 77.5 cm, the caliber 2.7 cm, the overall weight 16.3 kg.

The Late Gothic barrel is of wrought iron and was almost certainly made in Nuremberg in ca. 1490. It is octagonal throughout, with a pronouncedly swamped short octagonal muzzle section in the form of a crown (Krönlein-Mündungskopf) bearing the bead fore sight. The caliber was enlarged from originally ca. 2.0 cm to now 2.7 cm at the time of its most recent restocking in the later period of the Thirty Years War in ca. 1640.

The barrel has undergone several alterations during its long working life. First of all, it was shortened at the rear in about 1530/40, with the original back sight, maker's mark and large touch hole all now missing, and shut up with a tang screw in the shape of a roundel; at the same time the back sight was moved a bit forward towards the muzzle and a new, smaller touch hole with round pan and screwed swiveling cover with acorn shaped handle were added. When the barrel was wrought in the late 15th century the rear end would just have been blocked up by a red hot iron lug hammered in. We may safely assume that the original caliber was not yet bored out at that time because the 16th century was the age of relatively small calibers, but a new stock and probably an early form of tinder snap lock were added.

About 100 years after these modernizations, at the height of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and in its final phase when anything suitable for shooting was badly needed, this old fashioned but undestroyable Gothic barrel had to undergo its last alteration in about 1640: its bore was drilled out from ca. 2.0 to 2.7 cm, and a massive beechwood full stock with 'modern' early Baroque form of the belly butt stock was added, together with the present matchlock mechanism. Into the right side of the butt stock the initials ZG, two crossed Gothic keys between, are branded; the crossed keys are the city arms of Regensburg, Central Bavaria, and ZG stands for Zeughaus, which means city arsenal.

Interesting enough, as this was recognized to be a very old, time honored piece by then, the stock maker carried over a few tiny Gothic stylistic elements from the earlier stock which he disposed of. Also, the scale pattern stamped behind the rear end of the barrel is a reminiscence of Early Renaissance design when guns were regarded and ornamented stylistically as fire spitting sea dragons.

While the barrel was painted with read lead (minium) all over originally, only traces of it can be seen on its upper surface now; however, where the underside of the barrel is protected by the fore stock it retains all of its original paint, thus conveying an impression of how flamboyant it must have looked 150 years earlier.

This important piece is a witness of war history, and thanks to an almost identical barrel at the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt, inv.no. A 210, still retaining its original ca. 1490 Gothic blackened straight oak full stock, large touch hole with slight pan moulding, deeply struck Nuremberg maker's mark and original "small" bore of 2.0 cm we know what my piece looked like some 520 years ago (images attached at the bottom).

It is preserved in very good condition still and hosting it in my collection really means a lot to me. :)

Enjoy the documentation,
Michael

More.

The rest.

The piece in the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt, A 210, in its unaltered appearance of ca. 1490 (see text above).

I owe the first assembly of images together with the printed text to Robert Brooker jr., whom I am presently assisting setting up and publishing the BAM inventory.

m

OOO! Amazing! Thank you!

Thank you, Spiridonov,

It's a pleasure. ;)

Michael

I have some questions about wallgun in the bottom photo. What mark on a wood? Is the wood painted? Than the tree is impregnated? Whether there is a tree date corresponds to wood date?

Whether there is a BARREL date corresponds to wood date?

Hi Spirodonov,

Reply to your first question:

I, too, noticed on Robert's images that there was a coat of arms painted on the left side of the stock of the Ingolstadt haquebut/wallgun, almost certainly city arsenal or owner's arms. I will try to get a detailed image and do some research, so please be patient.

As I wrote the oak wood is stained black; it does no seem like paint to me. The staining was certainly a sort of impregnation of the wood, especially as the grounding was probably a water solution of chalk.

You are perfectly right, there is such a thing called the chronology of South German oak wood. As far as I know it has been set up for oak only. If the museum would consent to having a portion sawn off the stock (!) the cutting date of the oak tree in the second half of the 15th century could be determined by a synopsis of the annual rings as closely as plus/minus 15 years - not actually very helpful indeed ...

Reply to your second question:

As I wrote both the barrel and the stock of the Ingolstadt wallgun are contemporary, i.e. both were made in ca. 1490, the barrel almost certainly at a Nuremberg workshop.

Best,
Michael

Thanks for the full answer.I will be waiting for more detailed photos :)

Wow! A great addition to a CLASSIC post, Michael, I absolutely LOVE those beauties... I hope you are doing well. :)