[Matchlock]

Hi there,


Sorry for noticing that remarkable barrel only tonight; I had to stay in hospitals from Sept. 2012 through late April 2014.

This, in the author's opinion, is the barrel of

a High Gothic wrought-iron handgonne, ca. 1390-1400,
closely comparable to the specimen preserved in

The Michael Trömner Collection:
and re-attached down here:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...0+wrought-iron
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...nd+cannon+1400
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=barrel+1400

In its early working life, it may still have fired gun arrows:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=barrel+1400

For igniting irons and linstocks used to set off those guns, please see:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10029

Obviously, the rear end got of your barrel heavily swamped secondarily, for using it as a noise maker standing upright, or a door stopper - in the end.
The latter can still be found in alpine regions like Austria and Tyrol;
it happened to most of those 600 year-old earliest wrought-iron barrels.

In the aspects of historic weaponry, they are only important, and valuable, when preserved in unaltered original shape.

The bottom attachment depicts the so-called Bern gun, retaining its original stock; the hook is is a working-life addition of ca. 1430-40; preserved in the Historisches Museum Bern, Switzerland.


Best,
Michael Trömner

All photos copyrighted by the author, except that of the Bern gun, which is copyrighted by the Historisches Museum Bern.