Ca. 1520: One of the World's Oldest and Finest Matchlock Landsknecht Arquebuses

[Matchlock]

Hello Kai,

Thanks for congratulating but you left me kind of flabbergasted , learning that you did not see any notable similarities.

I reattached a few close-ups, together with photos of my arquebus. The rear end of the buttstock of my arquebus is downcurved and broadened; with all petronels, this is the part that the arquebusier had to grasp firmly and hold the gun, trying to withstand the recoil - and, of course, control it. Otherwise, the recoil would have hit his stomach, or probably smashed his ribs. So the hand actually covers the part of the buttstock that is downcurved the most, and this is why the downcurved rear end of the buttstock is not shown on the painting.
On the close-ups selected from the painting, there is a definite decurved upper line of all buttstocks shown, and all the arquebusiers are depicted with their hands covering the rear end of the buttstock, holding the guns right in front of their chests.
Please note as well the reinforced short muzzle section on all the arquebuses shown, mine included.

To me, the only differences between the guns shown and my arquebus are, as explained, the presence of the snap tinderlock mechanism - which was there originally, of course, and is still visible on the guns on the painting. That mechanism, as fragile as obsolete, was employed for only a few years, probably less than a decade, and for obvious reasons. On my surviving arquebus, it was replaced during the Thirty Years War, making this portion of the gun look quite distinct now from what it did in the 1520's. Moreover, the barrels on Heller's painting seem to consist of wrought iron, instead of brass.

I also attached details from two other contemporary sources of illustration of The Battle of Pavia, elucidating the historical fact that different types of guns were employed by mercenaries in the same battle. Older, Late Gothic style influenced arquebuses featuring a multi-faceted form of the so-called German Landsknechtsschaft (a straight and polygonal, highly faceted type of buttstock found on 15th century mercenaries arquebuses, and consequently named after them in German), and mounted with either wrought-iron or cast brass barrels, were used side by side with the new, Renaissance style 'molded' arquebuses. The latter had smoother stocks, in some cases anticipating the form of the downcurved petronel buttstock, which was to come in use widely by the mid 16th century.

The first attachments following are details taken from a series of large tapestries, made in Brussels workshops around 1530, and after sketches depicting 'frozen' scenes, which had been drawn 'live', and by artists who actually were real war reporters. These seven tapestries are now preserved at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples, Sicily. They represent the older, Gothic type of straight and polygonal mercenaries type of stock, mounted with snap tinderlocks and either wrought iron or brass barrels.

The next-in-line images show three details from another tapestry, also illustrating the Late Gothic type of the Landsknechtsschaft, followed by a contemporary woodcut.

Finally, there is a painting in the Royal Armouries Leeds, inv.no. 1-142; all of the close-up photos taken by the author, in 1990.

Thus, various and differing forms of gun stocks, old and new alike, were used side by side in the 1520's. What seems to have been common to all of them though, and consequently may be called a characteristic criterion for dating guns of the mid 1520's to the early 1530's, is the snap tinderlock mechanism, with only the serpentine mounted on a small rectangular plate, consisting of brass on almost all surviving specimens from that period, while all the other mechanical parts were set into and nailed to the stock, partly covered by inlaid stripes of wood (German: Schwamm-Schnapp-Teilschloß).
Yet there are other stylistic features typical of guns between ca. 1520 and 1530: the multi-staged and highly faceted barrels, terminating in a lengthened, round muzzle section. In some instances, these barrels were manufactured employing an older and traditional material, which was cast brass/bronze, although they faced being replaced by wrought iron increasingly. That latter development also accounts for the historical facts that we rarely find brass barrels shaped by the characteristic Renaissance sense of style of the late 1520's to the mid-1530's, and that the Nuremberg production and export of cast brass barrels for long guns (arquebuses), booming since the second half of the 15th century, had decreased rapidly by the late 1520's. Well-established workshops of brass/bronze founders, like the Pehaims and the Pegnitzers, soon lost their former signification, while blacksmiths workshops flourished, on the strength of their wrought iron barrels.


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Attachments, appearing in succession relating to the text in post #8.

All author's photos, except the one labeled Board of Trustees of the Armouries.


m

[Matchlock]

The attachments of restocked wall guns in the Graz Armory continued from post #6; for the description see post #2. The barrel tangs and pans of these barrels testify earlier amendments carried through in the Graz arsenal between ca. 1530 and 1560. The rear sights partly date back to either that period, or, as in the case illustrated here, were added during the first half of the Thirty Years War.

Photos #3 through #7 show one of the oldest Graz barrels, of octagonal section throughout, and terminating in a short, heavily swamped muzzle section, indented with the hammer to evoke the impression of a crown (German: Maximilianischer Krönlein-Mündungskopf).
For more on this Late Gothic design of both columns and barrels shaperd likewise, cf. my thread

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...imilian+muzzle


The present stock may well be the first, or was replaced in the early 16th century the latest. The plate for a matchlock mechanism (with the serpentine missing) is a Thirty Years War addition.

Above the breech, and right in front of the rear sight, there is a wellknown, because often seen and deeply struck barrelsmith's mark, a so-called house mark, representing a certain workshop or maker by the symbol in a shield.
The author has documented this mark on about 80 various wrought iron wall gun barrels, all of them datable to ca. 1490-1510, among them a haquebut retaining its original ash wood stock, and a detached barrel belonging to the very same series, both specimens in the author's collection:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...arian+haquebut

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...barrels+passau


Most of these barrels are preserved in Bavarian museums nowadays, with the Veste Oberhaus in Passau housing the largest number of about 30 pieces; more barrels struck with this mark are kept in the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt, the Historisches Museum in Regensburg, the Stadtmuseum in Schweinfurt, and some more are in private collections like mine.

I was told by the Graz administration that Winfried Tittmann had attributed this mark to Peter Pögl of Thörl near Innsbruck, The Tyrol, who furnished large numbers of wrought iron haquebut barrels and cannon balls (!) for the Maximilian Armories.
This attribution may be doubted, on the grounds that the vast majority of those barrels struck with this very same mark has been in German, especially in Bavarian armories, since the time of their production more than 500 years ago, while only very few specimen have survived in Austrian museums.
The largest amount by far of those haquebut barrels, about 30, is preserved in the Veste (fortress) Oberhaus in Passau, Lower Bavaria.

One of the barrels in the author's collection, struck with this mark, originally comes from the Passau armory, and so does the historically highly important piece dated 1481, which is the world's second oldest known dated barrel of any 'long gun' small gun - apart from a very doubtful brass/bronze haquebut barrel in the museum of Gerolzhofen, Upper Franconia, Bavaria, which is struck ! with the spurious date 1474. Usually, and among other features of that piece in question, dates on cast barrels were founded integrally in high relief, and chiseled afterwards.
I will post more on this barrel in a thread of its own, proving that the date 1474 is a fake, obviously done in the German Historismus period, and most probably in 1874, to commemorate 'the good old Gothic period'. Futhermore, all three of the Gerolzhofen cast barrels were crudely transformed to percussion and obviously fired in the mid or second half of the 19thh century. As they could not cope up with the stronger 19th century black powder, two of them are in burst condition now.

Other haquebut barrels struck with this mark are preserved in the Historisches Museum in Regensburg, all of them bought from the Fortress Oberhaus in Passau, and via a dealer, during World War II; in the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt, all of them coming from the former Bavarian Hauptzeughaus (main arsenal) in Munich; in the Veste Coburg, and in the Stadtmuseum in Schweinfurt, and in a few private collections, among them that of the author.

Back to discussing the attribution of the barrelsmith's mark:
As Peter Pögl's father, Sebald Pögl I, used a mark depicting a short hammer, its fore end split and shaped like the foot of a goat (German: Geißfußhammer), employed to extract nails, it appears less likely for his son to create a mark of such a different design.
Moreover, the fact that only very few barrels have survived in Austrian museums, and with so many of them still existing in Bavaria, it seems more probable that they were originally made in a big workshop in Nuremberg, from where most of the 15th and 16th century weapons werde exported to literally the Old World.
In Germany, there is a Medieval saying: Nürnberger Tand geht in alle Land, meaning that the majority of all kinds of goods produced was made in Nuremberg workshops.

**********************************

Finally, the last attachments:

- 3 photos of a 17th century wall gun (in the foreground), the stock screwed to a wooden stand (museum of the town of Gerolzhofen) - in the same manner that my arquebus was obviously 'secured'; cf. post #4, last paragraph.

All author's photos.




Best,
Michael











All author's photos.

[Matchlock]

Here are the attachments to post #4, documenting the exhibition in the museum of Gerolzhofen, Upper Franconia, Bavaria, which I photographed in 1990.
The long matchlock wall gun in the foreground, with the light stock and the buttstock pierced ovally to receive the fingers of the gunman, is fixed to a wooden stand by two screws entering the underside of the forestock.
(More on the Late Gothic cast brass/bronze barrels beside it soon).

Two screw holes, with the threads still visible, have been drilled in the forestock of my arquebus in discussion as well; so my gun, too, was on display in a museum, in the same manner.

m

[cornelistromp]

Hi Michael,

This is really a superb/amazing example of a Landsknecht Arquebuse!
congratulations, it must have been absolutely worth the waiting.

best,
jasper

[Matchlock]

Thanks a zillion, Jasper,

It was indeed!

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Attached find a whole lot more detailed photos of my arquebus, with the Maximilian brass barrel of ca. 1490-1500!

Attaching more that 100 huge photos of one single object in discussion - that's something which print media will never be able to achieve!

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Enjoy,
Michael