Matchlock Hand Mortar

[Matchlock]

Hi Deus,


Welcome to the forum.

No single hand mortar (Katzenkopf) solely equiped with a matchlock ignition is recorded.
Wheellock hand mortars of the late 16th-early 17th c. however were often combined with an additional snap-matchlock or tinderlock serpentine on the left side of the wheel.
They are also called grenade launchers.
Most of them feature cast-bronze barrels but a few samples are known to be mounted with wrought-iron barrels (see bottom attachments in post # 4).

Atached first are two mortars in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum München, both made in Nuremberg:
the upper with a combined snap-matchlock and wheellock, ca. 1590, the safety-catch missing;
the lower with a wheellock, and featuring an extremely flared fishtail butt, ca. 1600;

next a sample with combined snap-matchlock and wheellock ignition, Nuremberg, ca. 1590, and retaining its safety-catch; in the British Museum London.


Best,
Michael