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				 First half 16th century 
 
			
			Note the cute sea-horse shaped snap serpentine of the smallest mechanism, which belongs to a small Landsknecht type harquebus in my collection that was most probably made in Brescia, Val Trompia, Northern Italy, in about 1520. I will post that gun later.
 The one in the middle is a snap matchlock of Nuremberg make, ca. 1540.
 
 The one at the bottom is North Italian, ca. 1550, retaining its original finely wrought tiller trigger. It also highly unusual in having a safety catch: a wing nut can be turned to block the sear inside the lockplate!
 
 Michael
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