[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Morten

Good morning and thanks again Michael,
I also have a wheellock pistol I meen should be from around the 1630's. It has no visible marks , but are marks with a flower and IR (støkel no.3556-3558) on the inside of the lock. It has spring loaded pan cover.
I can see that one of the musket you post a picture of has a similar shape of the lock.

Hi Morten,

That wheellock saddle pistol of yours can be dated to ca. 1625-35, and the type of the lock with that bar fixing the wheel centered denotes that it was a very solid construction; I am convinced that it was produced in Suhl, and when you take out the barrel you should detect the Suhl hen and the letters SVL, most probably on the left side of the rear section of the barrel, which is covered by the forestock now.
That pistol survived the Thirty Years War and has doubtlessly seen various battles.
The ramrod does not belong; I will post samples what the original ramrod looked like.
Your pistol still features the longer form, so I dated it pre-1635; from the 1630's, most pistols were notably shorter.

The outline of the lock on your sample is much like the locks of the pair of - shorter! - pistols used by the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus on the battlefield of Lützen in 1632; a musket ball blew him off his horse but he got killed by rapiers .

See attachments, including the perfect and firing copies of Gustavus Adolphus's pair of pistols wrought by Armin König


Best,
Michael