Matchlock Petronels, Germany, ca. 1550-1600

[Matchlock]

Please also see lots of photos in
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16183

The English term petronel derives from the French poitrine, meaning chest. Of course, the often read explanation that petronels were pressed against the mercenary's (Landsknechts) chest when firing, is total rubbish. The recoil would have smashed the poor guy's ribs and stomach.
Like most early arquebuses, petronels were held with strong arms before the breast and aimed quite freely, although their barrels usually were equipped with both rear (mostly of tubular shape tapering towards the muzzle) and foresights.
The eponymous, basic and characteristic feature of a petronel is its long and slender, pronouncedly downcurved buttstock; the earliest petronels of ca. 1550-60 seem to have been made in both Nuremberg and Northern Italy; at the mid 16th century, they did not yet have iron mounts to either the blunt end of the buttstock or the fore-end of the forestock. Their trigger is also characteristic of their type of firearms as it always is a long tiller trigger/trigger bar, derived directly from the trigger bars of Late Gothic crossbows. The wood used for petronels made after ca. 1550 usually is walnut.

The average weight of a military petronel musket usually was quite the same as of a contemporary musket with a triangularly flared fishtail buttstock: 7 to 10 kg, at an overall length of ca. 140 to 156 cm!
However, there also were lighter and shorter smallbore calivers (Schützenrohre), weighing only ca. 4-5 kg, at an overall length of ca. 130 cm.

The earliest predecessors of petronels can be seen on a painting by Ruprecht Heller: The Battle of Pavía, dated 1529 (the famous battle took place in 1525), in the National Museum Stockholm, inv.no. 272.
I posted many details from those wonderfully detailed scenes depicting all kinds of contemporary weapons:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ia+heller+1525
Go to post #28!

A unique and important short matchlock Landsknecht matchlock arquebus of ca. 1520, with a petronel butt and a brass/bronze barrel featuring the same shape of muzzle as depicted by Heller, is in my collection! I will soon post it .

It is the one at the bottom on the attached photo of four matchlock arquebuses, all 1st half 16th century.

Have fun studying the various variations of forms!

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Light matchlock petronels - calivers (German: Schützenrohre) - in the Landeszeughaus Graz, Styria, Austria, 1560's to 1570; one of them is dated 1568. The barrels all have Nuremberg marks; the locks are combined tiller matchlocks and snap tinderlocks, with two serpentines united on one lockplate: the long trigger bar acting on the 'usual' serpentine, and the short trigger (German: Züngel) releasing the cocked serpentine to snap into the igniting pan.
In Austria, these petronels with downcurved buttstocks are traditionally called Krummschäfte (bent stocks).
The second attachment gives their exact data both in English and German.
Author's photos.

m

[Matchlock]

More from the 1560's Nuremberg petronel series with combined locks in Graz.

[Matchlock]

That's the rest of my photos of the Nuremberg 1560's series.

m

[Matchlock]

A good North Italian military matchlock petronel caliver, ca. 1560 (it was misdated by the auction house).
Please note the coat-of-arms on the barrel, the long tubular rear sight and the male portrait stamped on the pan cover. The latter is common to all mid 16th century Italian petronels; as the Renaissance originated in Italia, and was the rebirth of the Ancient Greek and Roman styles, these portraits copied the way that the Roman Emperors had their portraits struck on coins!
Sold at auction with Czerny's, Sarzana.

m

[Matchlock]

Another North Italian 1560's military matchlock petronel caliver, preserved in 'untouched', heavily patinated condition throughout, but the stock heavily wormed and damaged, and with the downcurved buttstock missing, it was nothing more than a mere fragment.
Of course, it, just like the previously shown specimen, had the coin-like portait struck on the pan cover.
It was sold at auction today with Hermann Historica's Munich for 1,700 euro hammer price, plus 23 per cent commission.
Their expert did not even know it was ca. 1560 and Italian; their catalog description reads 'a German! matchlock musket!, 1st half 17th century'!!!
As I stated, it was not a long and heavy musket but a short, light and smallbore caliver.

I wonder whether we will meet that piece again on the market.
Anyway, by then it will of course be crudely 'restored', with the buttstock most certainly reconstructed the wrong way!, and robbed of all its charming patina that proved its great age ...

m