Snaphaunce Lock for I.D.

[Matchlock]

Hi rickystl,

I guess you said about everything that can be said.
Though widely copied in the Arabian countries, this one definitely does look English. The turned jaw screw and especially the twofold breakthru ornament on the pan cover still reflect the early 16th c. Renaissance artistic taste, so I would suggest a date of origin of early 17th c., ca. 1610-30, which makes your snaphaunce mechanism quite rare and not without value. It was either mounted on a military musket with wide fishtail buttstock or on a pistol.

I attach some characteristic English snaphaunce guns of ca. 1580-1620 for comparison. The earliest of them still adopted the safety catch on the rear of the lock plate from the wheellock.

The puffer on top is of ca. 1600-10,
the heavy musket dated 1590, the steel missing; both photograhed by the author in the Tower of London in 1991, now preserved in the Royal Armouries Leeds;
the petronel with the downcurved buttstock dated 1584,
the inlaid pair of English pistols with the pear shaped pommels ca. 1615, preserved in the Kremlin Museum, Moskaw;
the plain English military musket with the fishtail butt ca. 1620, interestingly enough still equipped with a safety catch, preserved in the Real Armería Madrid.

Best,
Michael