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Old 23rd January 2014, 11:18 AM   #66
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
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Default Two Austrian Haquebut Wall Guns (Dopelhaken), ca. 1500, And a Barrel

These I photographed in the former collection of a friend of mine way back in the 1980's. Unfortunately, he had to deaccession them long ago.
They retained their original stocks, the one on top of light oak wood, the other probably of fir; both stocks were attached to the wrought-iron barrels by iron bands intertwined at the bottom.
Both barrels were of round section, with dovetailed right-hand side round igniting pans, the swiveling covers missing, the pivot rivets still retained. The one on top not sighted, the other with rear and foresight. The hooks were rectangular.
The end of the buttstock of the lower haquebut broken off, the remainder showing some carved foliage ornament. Please note that the forestock of both haquebuts terminate in front of the muzzle section, which can be observed in most similar cases: the muzzle section was left unstocked.
Overall length ca. 150 cm.

The detached barrel of octagonal shape throughout, ca. 1490-1500, with rear and foresight, the touch hole originally located on the first right-hand edge, but nailed up and moved to the right flat; the dovetailed pan missing. The rear sight, heart-shaped, seemed to be an alteration of the late Thirty Years War, ca. 1645-48, as that was a shape common to the mid-17th c. Interestingly, the bore of that barel had not been enlarged in the Thirty Years War.
Above the breech a deeply struck maker's mark, a shield with one cube sinister and another in the upper right half. Short, heavily swamped octagonal muzzle section bearing a blade foresight. Prepared for a full stock, with one rear barrel loop beneath the breech and another formed by a pierced hole in the rectangular hook.
Length ca. 90 cm.

Remarkably, that barrel had an almost identical double in the same collection, but in finer condition, the underside retaining its original red lead minium paint once hidden (and preserved!) by the full stock. Also, the maker's mark was identical.


Enjoy.
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Last edited by Matchlock; 23rd January 2014 at 03:16 PM.
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