a seventeenth century matchlock ?

[Matchlock]

It is a fact that, in the High Baroque period of ca. 1700, no other country but Poland widely used a Renaissance style that had become outdated for almost 100 years (!) in order to embellish military firearms that were manufactured in Germany but, just as the style, had become obsolete long since.


The matchlock musket posted by Marcus in post #8 is all the more remarkable as it basically is a very early piece, of the period and type of the Dresden muskets, with highly decorated stock. We should closely study the shape of its lock mechanism with the long tiller trigger and the early serpentine, its barrel and stock.
Now what was wrong with that piece? Have a close look and you will notice it is too short: 149 cm overall length is not enough as to proportion when the standard length was 156 cm-160 cm. So the piece must have been shortened. Next, the back sight does not show the correct style; it should be a long tubular back sight chiselled as a bearded face. Finally, the screw entering the barrel tang from above denotes a complete fake as tang screws between ca. 1560 and 1700 always entered the stock from the underside!
Of course it was dated completely wrong 'ca. 1620' by Hermann Historica. 1580's-90 would be the correct date assiged to it but concerning what had been done to it - leave it alone! That's what I did.

I am proud to say that a fine specimen of that very same type of heavy (9 kg!) early matchlock musket of ca. 1570-80 is in my collection, the barrel struck with the Gothic minuscule p mark of the famous Munich gunsmith Peter Peteck who worked for the Electors of Saxony and the Emperor Charles V, and whose guns are preserved in world famous collections like the Met and the Real Armería Madrid!


Looking at the muskets Jasper posted we should keep in mind that they cover an early range from 1579 (the Emden petronel) to ca. 1625 (the long muskets with trigger guards), their overall and especially their decorative style being forerunners and totally incomparable with Raf's musket in discussion. Originally, there just never existed a decorated version of the latter!


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