As to the dragon-mouthed barrel illustrated in post # 13, this 'gun' with the spurious date 1490 is a wellknown crude fake, with not one single part being old, let alone original. It is ridiculous to any arms historian!
It is not a blunderbuss, either ...
For genuine dragon- or sea-monster mouthed barrels - all of them are North Italian (Val Trompia), all consist of wrought iron and alll were made in the 1520's-30's - please see my threads
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http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...monster+barrel
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http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...monster+barrel
If original, all those arquebus gun barrels are far from being blunderbusses; their caliber was those 14-16 mm that were characteristic of all short barrels of the first half to the mid of the 16th century.
More complete and rather plump forgeries from that very same source attached! BEWARE!!!
Best,
Michael