[Matchlock]

This unique specimen is preserved in the Prague Army Museum on the Hradschin.

Overall length only 64 cm (!), caliber of the three longer barrels ca. 10 mm, of the four short barrels in the rear buttstock ca. 8 mm.

This is a North Italian, almost certainly Brescian, short snap matchlock arquebus. The full stock is of walnut which is characteristic of Italy, the inlays are of lighter wood, not of staghorn as one might expect. The front barrels are round, three staged and profusely ornamentally chiseled whereas the rear barrels are of square outer shape.

The central barrel is sighted, the back sight was originally equipped with a tubular sight, now missing as well as the ramrod.

The seahorse zoomorphic serpentine of the spap matchlock only ignited the upper barrel while the two others and those in the buttstock had to be manually fired.

The holes in the bottom of the buttstock originally contained the ramrod (the larger drilling) for the rear barrels and secured by a swiveling lid cover hinged with a hook to the ring seen below; an oval impression of that lid can still be seen in the wood.

A similar three barrel arquebus for completely manual ignition is illustrated in the Maximilian Armory Inventory, ca. 1507 (cod.icon. 222), see attachments.

Author's photos, August 1995. The b/w scan is from American Rifleman, March 1953.

Best,
Michael