Here are some finely decorated wrought-iron Italian (Brescia made) barrels from snap-matchlock or snap-tinderlock Landsnecht arquebuses.
The were all wrought three-staged, with a rear and forward stages both heavily swamped and the central stage notable thinner. All of these barrels were of round section throughout.
The complete guns looked quite similar to the one shown at the beginning of this thread.


All of them are iron carved in high relief, against a ground which originally was blackened for contrast. With top quality, the ground was dotted and in some cases gilt.

There is also a large group of contemporary Italian maces known with iron-carved decorated in the same style.

As the walls of these barrels had unusually thick walls they were often re-used over centuries and consequently undergone severel alterations.
These heavily altered barrels often show up at Italian auctions.
E.g., the igniting pans that originally were dove tailed at the right-hand side were removed when the barrels were restocked together with wheellock or flintlock machanisms.


Originally, all these short and stout barrels barrels had a relatively small bore of ca. 14 to 16 mm; in later times, and because their walls were thick enough, the bores were mostly enlarged up to ca. 20 mm.

Originally, they were attached to the stock just by means of a wood screw entering from above through the short barrel tang, and by a transversal wooden pin that went through a dovetailed loop at the underside of the barrel, just in front of the swamped forward section which was left unstocked.

Also, they originall were equipped with tubular rear sights that were in most cases put over two dovetailed short iron pins or feet; the top side of these feet was v-shaped for sighting, and the foresight was a small dovetailed iron bead.

The ramrod channel was drilled extending to the rear as far as about 5 to 10 cms, thus allowing the wooden ramrod to protrude not as as far as the forward section of the barrel. The idea was to prevent the ramrod from damage or breaking as the forestock ended in front of the swamped muzzle section und the ramrod would have remined unprotected.
The wooden ramrod was usually equipped with an iron finial at both ends, with the one at the rear threaded to receive a scourer or a worm (ball extractor).

The latest of these barrels seem to have been made in ca. 1550/60; they look much more slender though and are notably longer.


Please also cf. my threads

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlock+arquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlock+arquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...lock+harquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...lock+harquebus




and also see
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...805#post173805

on iron carved Italian maces.




Best,
Michael

The following photos were taken by Herman Historica, when this snap matchlock came up for sale, in November, 2017.

These pictures are attached for posterity and in memory of our good friend and teacher, Michael Tromner.

The rest;

Excelent pictures; excelent gun ... and an excelent tribute, Richard :cool: .

Michael was brilliant and never more so than on early firearms. It would be fitting to honour his work by opening a

"Forum Hall of Honour"

in which his superb threads (and those of other fine members now gone) could be specially placed.. In a tribute to them and as an inspiration to others.

Isn't that the same as the Classic thread section? :)

Absolutely Marcus,
Some dozen of his high end topics are listed in "Classic threads", those which were elected to be there by Michl himself.

I see more merit in backing up the threads made by Michael on a second server/database, this way we will never loose the thread like the Trade mark thread.

Salaams Marcus den toom That is a great point !! Indeed it would be a good move to protect these threads as they are the crown jewels of Forum. I would suggest doing that and also of hoisting the thread and several like it into the hall of fame status since they are absolutely superb examples...and may inspire others in research ... and as a tribute to the authors.

My suggestion would place these threads into a new proposed section as a tribute to those great authors ...in the time honoured way. They are not just classics but may be viewed as written by real masters of sword and pen as a tribute and as an inspiration much higher than mere classics...Classics have a place but so does representation in what I would call Forum Hall of Fame...It is a mark of respect.

Despite our archival intentions and efforts, all content on the internet is actually pretty ephemeral. Just a change in the scripting language that is not adequately backward compatible could wipe access to the database in an instant. Members finding information of particular importance to themselves should save the pages to their own system as a safeguard.

By chance i found these at the Royal armouries website and thought it well to show them and lift this thread up, once more to be enjoyed.
All pictures in this post are copyrighted by the Royal Armoury and are not to be distributed without their consent.
https://royalarmouries.org/collectio...t/object-28683