Dating Earliest Barrels: the Importance of the Position of the Touch Hole

[Matchlock]

Of small dimensions (Viertelhaken) and round section throughout, small touch hole with large, funnel-shaped trough on top, long straight rectangular hook forge welded to the barrel, no sights. The long, straight forge welded iron tiller terminating in a ring for handling. Rectangular recoil hook.
Overall length 77 cm, bore 14 mm.

A similar, but smaller and somewhat earlier piece, ca. 1430-40, is preserved in The City Museum of Cologne (image attached),

Hermann Historica's, Munich, 7 April 2008.

[Matchlock]

The description by the auction house was complete nonsense. This was a heavy, round barrel for a wall gun, not for a rifle as the bore is smooth. The square muzzle section was characteristic of 16th c. barrels from the Netherlands, and so was the rear sight with small peep hole; the bead foresight was located on the muzzle section. At the right-hand side there was the touch hole in the center of a dovetailed rectangular pan, the swiveling cover missing. Long, rectangular, pierced recoil hook.
Length 124 cm, bore 26 mm.

Hermann Historica, Munich, 24 Oct 2011.

[Matchlock]

Heavy, octagonal wrought-iron barrel changing flats to an upper ridge at its forward section, deeply struck barrelsmith's mark above the breech; no sights; small right-hand side touch hole, the original pan trough removed; the barrel segmented in three stages by a roped frieze at about one third of its length, and another immediately in front of the short, swamped muzzle section with bell-mouthed muzzle. Rectangular recoil hook.
Retaining its original oak? wood full stock with slightly downcurved buttstock, attached by two iron bands, their ends intertwined at the bottom; the buttstock branded with the initials DK, its rear end a replacement.
Overall length 148 cm, bore 34 mm.

As those Late-Gothic barrels usually feature much thicker barrel walls and somewhat smaller bores (ca. 22-26 mm), I think that that barrel has been drilled out to its present bore during the late Thirty Years War, ca. 1645.

Hermann Historica, 23 April 2012, lot 33.

[Matchlock]

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.
m