View Single Post
Old 24th December 2014, 11:32 AM   #30
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default

Hi Morten,


That, of couse, is an alternative sight of collecting: to leave the items just the way they were when they entered your collection.

I have always followed that policy myself but I basically acquire objects in perfect original condition.

Anyway, attached at bottom are photos of a Styrian combined wheellock and matchlock musket dated 1583, and retaining not just its original ramrod with threaded iron finial, still blued, but also the matching worm and scourer; they were stored in a compartment on the right side of the butt stock which, 400 years ago, was not a "patch" box:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...tchlock+musket


The only exception to my aforementioned rule of collectiong only complete objects was a Styrian matchlock musket of ca. 1645-50, which is preserved in literally "untouched" condition since those terminal days of the Thirty Years War.
It is wrought quite coarsely, with the iron parts all still in their primeval blued surface which has now turned brownish thanks to a heavy patina. The beechwood full stock was never even stained or varnished and therefore shows its untreated "white" surface now turned to a patinated gray.
The gun is in perfect complete state of preservation and working order but the ramrod is missing.
I just wiped all iron parts with an olive oil soaked cloth to stop and passivate new rust but did not add a replacement ramrod.

With its dark iron contrasting to the grayish white stock and the ramrod gone, it imports the raw cruelty of an ancient war right into our period of time and conveys a perfect testimony of the needs that so many battles raging all over Europe for 30 years must have brought along at its final stage, and for a long time to last even after is was over.

The bottom atts. depict the musket on its arrival from Sotheby's London, 12 Dec 2004, where I had won it bidding on the telephone 10 years ago; the relatively new rust partly covering the original blued or browned iron is clearly evident. Olive oil made it harmless and rendered the surfaces smooth.


Best,
Michael
Attached Images
          

Last edited by Matchlock; 24th December 2014 at 05:38 PM.
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote