A Haquebut Wall Gun Barrel, ca. 1525-40, With Later Alterations
 

Sold at Hermann Historica yesterday.

Of wrought iron, in two stages, octagonal and round, with long and swamped octagonal muzzle section, accentuated by a roped frieze; touch hole with rectangular pan, the swiveling cover missing; sighted, the back sight now deformed; two stock loops on the underside, a third below the fore end obviously missing. Long, rectangular hook.

The rectangular shape of the pan, as well as the now contorted but originally unusually high rear sight both provide hints that the barrel was probably reused and altered during the 1640's, the late Thirty Years War period. Characteristic early 16th-c. pans look different as they are usually more curved and have round troughs (samples attached below), and their original back sights are quadral.

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