fantasy matchlocks

[Matchlock]

Hi Raf,


Thanks for keeping me in the back of your head when posting these 'beauties'!

You are right, of course, the barrel is an old item from an 18th-19th c. Indian matchlock piece, and the lock is basically old as well: actually this is the - cut-down - mere remains of what originally most probably was a Nuremberg made combined matchlock and snap-tinderlock of the 1560's, as the style of the serpentine in the zoomorphic shape of a sea monster, with its tail curled, still denotes. As the length of the lock plate now lacks its real proportions it seems to me though that the left half of the lock plate containing the original snap-tinderlock mechanism has been crudely sawn off.
I attached photos of three of those muskets at the Landeszeughaus Graz, Styria. The barrels are struck with the Nuremberg proof mark and the dates 1567 and 1568 respectively.
As you will see, the left-hand side mounted snap-tinderlock mechanism has been removed from these Graz muskets as well but the lock plates retain their original length.
Originall, these mechanisms all looked like the sample attached at the bottom.

Author's photos, 1997.


Best,
Michael