Late Gothic Crossbows and Accouterments

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The first two from Peter Finer's site.

More to follow.

Michael

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The first text is from Christie's sales catalog of 27 April 1988 when this item was first sold by auction.
The second text and color images are from an Italian auction house where it failed to sell for the astronomic estimate they had put on it some weeks ago. Btw., their dating "late 15th century" is too early; the style of the engravings is not datable before ca. 1520.

Michael

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The first, about 170 cm high, together with a movable protective wall (that was most probably used by a harquebusier, though) , in the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg, the seond in the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt and of somehat smaller dimensions.
The quiver, too, is of unusual size.

Telling from the long, slender iron socket and the tiny arrow tip, the topmost of the two Ingolstadt crossbow bolts was originally an incendiary arrow, the incendiary mass now missing.

The painted protective wall is also in the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt.

Michael

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The other quiver in the Bayerisches Armeemuseum Ingolstadt. Its style of decoration refllects the Eastern European taste.

Michael

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At the Kelvingrove Museum Glasgow.

Michael

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Note the painted composite bow.

Michael

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More.

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Found these on the internet, possibly taken at the Hungarian National Museum Budapest.

Michael

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... preserved in the City Museum of Soest, Germany!

Michael

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One more of the display at the Soest Ostenhof-Museum.

Michael

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The left one late 15th century, with a horn composite bow.

Michael

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The wooden tiller completely covered by carved and part colored ivory plaques. The arms are those of Fels-Colonna, The Tyrol.
Note the mark on the tiller trigger.

Michael

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At the Museum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck/The Tyrol.

Michael

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Finally here is the image of the smith's mark on the tiller trigger.

Michael

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Sold at auction two years ago, bearing an old inventory label from the famos Vienna Collection of Albert Figdor, early 20th century.

Of beechwood. Both the obsolete 14th century form of the crossbow illustrated on the lid and that of the tinned iron mounts denote that the casket was actually made at least some 100 years earlier than the date 1524 suggests. Furthermore, close inspection proves that all the painting is at the same level, only the date 1524 - showing the Gothic form the numeral 4 - consists of a much thicker layer than the rest.

So this fine object should be referred to as a casket for special crossbow bolts (not the common quarrels), and made in the early 15th century, probably as a prize for the best aiming crossbowman and containing the bolts that he won the title with. It seems to have been dated 1524 some 100 years later - or may be exactly 100 years later, possibly in remembrance of the founding of a crossbowmen's guild.

Michael

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Preserved at the City museum of Cologne, Germany.

In the first picture, the bow is of course inversed; this had been corrected by the time the second picture was taken.

The open curve of the composite bow is due to not having had a string attached for hundreds of years.

The detached bow of a huge wall crossbow also at the Cologne museum.

Michael

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The wooden core is covered with pig skin, the mouth of the quiver is leather covered, the original leather lid is now missing on almost all surviving samples.

Michael

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One more detail.

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Two line drawings, after 1505, from Martin Löffelholz's Nuremberg scrapbook started in 1505. They picture devices to cut slightly curved grooves into cossbow quarrel hafts for insetting wooden or leather flights/fletches to give them a more accurate ballistic spin as they went.

500 year old machine based mass production.

Michael

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The first dated 1460, made for Duke Ulrich V of Württemberg, Southern Germany.

Michael

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The rest.

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A fine Late Gothic crossbow, 1st half 15th century, and two fine 15th century century quivers, all from the former armory of Schloss Hohenaschau, Upper Bavaria, now preserved at the Bavarian National Museum Munich.

Michael

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A crossbow from the Basle arsenal, in a Christie's sale in the 1990's.

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... in the Wallace Collection, London.

The crank of the one dated 1600 is missing.

Best,
Michael

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A group of eleven and another of ten, some of the original hafts (Zaine) retaining their wooden (and partially) leather flights.

Sold Bonhams London, 26 Nov 2008.

Best,
Michael

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More.

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The rest.

In some of the hafts in the previous part of this post, small holes can be noted drilled into some of the hafts. They give proof that these quarrels were part of later decorative displays such as roundel or fan shaped arrangements which became very popular during the 17th to 19th centuries and to which the quarrels had been fixed by wires.

Best,
Michael

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Sold Bonhams, Nov 26, 2008.

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... from the Fencing Books by Thalhoffer, 2 vols., dated 1459!

Best,
Michael

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Six 15th c. crossbow bolts in fine condition, the oak wood hafts drilled for fixing to a later Baroque or Historismus iron panoply, as shown above.
Author's collection, recent acquisitions.

Best,
Michael