Late Gothic Tiller/Stick Guns, mid to late 15th century

[Matchlock]

Please see also

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15577

[Matchlock]

All the barrels shown below came from Montjuic Castle, Spain.
Ed was offered them as a lot by a dealer in 2009.
Thanks a lot, Ed, my old friend, for the photos!

All of them date from ca. 1450.
One of them even retained a portion of its original wooden tiller stock!

For a fragmented barrel of the same type and date in the Royal Armouries Leeds, and dated too early by their experts please also see:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18781

Actually, it was Ed who invited me to join vikingsword.com in 2008, guiding my first steps here!

My God, more than 4,100 of my posts have lain between - disregarding the fact that I was hospitalized for more than a year and a half, from Sept. 2012 through late April 2014, and just a step away from dying, again and again and again ...

My will to be STRONG, TRUE, and FREE, finally saved me.

I still wish Ed would be around here once more, just the way he used to years ago ...


Best,
Michael

All images attached to this post were taken by Ed in 2009, and are copyrighted by him.

[Matchlock]

The attachments depict the forerunner types of the 'long' arms discussed above, not yet fitted with reinforcing rings.
They are termed Bohemian pipe guns (German: Böhmische oder Hussiten-Pfeifen) dating from the 1430's.
The ones shown here are preserved at the Museum of Tabor, Czechia.

They all retain their rear original sockets, the hafts of the two on the image attached on top being modern replacements.
The socketed barrel shown on all images following the first is 42 cm long overall including the socket, its bore 20 mm.
A wrought iron! ball of that caliber excavated from a historic Hussite battleground is shown next to the muzzle.

For more on that type of longarms cf. my threads:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ontjuic+castle
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...light=montjuic

[Matchlock]

On top:
Two good close-ups of the notably swamped muzzle section of the round wrought iron barrel;

Following:
Three contemporary sources of illustration;

- ca. 1450;

- Eberhard Windeck, Das Buch von Kaiser Sigismund (illuminated manuscript, Sotheby's, 7.7.2009;
cf.
http://www.handschriftencensus.de/9134),
folio 140r, The battle of Kratzau, with Hans von Polenz (the captain of the Silesian army) and his forces overwhelming those of the Hussites and their armored carriages in a bloody battle (11 November 1429);
illustrations from the workshop of Diebold Lauber,
ca. 1445-50;

and

- Tiller guns, ca. 1450; from:
Martial d'Auvergne, Vigiles de Charles VII, king 1422-61.

Please also see my threads:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...light=montjuic
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18781