English civil war lead powder cap

[Matchlock]

Hi Marcus and Raf,


Here is another British instance of a leaden cap for a powder measure from a bandelier, and one of the powder measures on one of my perfectly preserved bandeliers from the Emden armory is completely made of lead, not just the cap, and all covered with black leather; the other measures are all made of wood.

I guess I should also point out once more what I wrote on bandeliers in my thread, post #8:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...27s+bandoliers
The earliest powder measures for arquebusier's bandeliers in the 15th c., according to sources of period artwork like the Bavarian Landshuter Zeughausinventar (armory inventory) of 1485 where they are called 'hultzein ladung' (wooden load container), consisted of drilled wood shaped in a lathe. By the early-16th c., the measures for each load on arquebusier's bandeliers were mostly made of tinned iron, as the tapestries with scenes from the Battle of Pavia, 1525, depict.


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Some close-ups of the - highly fragile! - tinned-iron powder measures on my early-16th c. bandelier, and some unique late-15th c. brass caps from such measures, figured, embossed and pierced with Late Gothic tracery and lettering in Gothic minuscules; the script on one samplle seems to read 'maria'. They are all from my collection!

For details on early-16th c. bandeliers, please see also

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=bandeliers

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=bandoliers

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=bandoliers

and

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=bandoliers


At bottom, two details from Melchior Feselen's painting The Battle of Alesia, dated 1533, depicting arquebusiers wearing bandeliers with small metal powder containers/measures.


m

[Martin Moser]

Truly amazing pictures, Michael! I love the details, which I have been able to get a view of so far. Some of these are in your collection you say? Wow!
Can you tell perhaps how the leather is attached to the apostles? Glued or sewn on or a combination of both?

[Matchlock]

Hi Martin,


I'm glad you like my pieces as all these bandeliers, bundles of matchcord and caps for Gothic powder measures are in my collection.
Marcus will remember seeing most of them when attending me. I'm not sure though whether he noticed the small Gothic brass caps in one of my glass cases. They range among the greatest rarities of historic weaponry.

The leather was scratched down to an extremely thin layer, watered and wrapped tightly around these powder measures/'apostles'/powder flasks; no glue was needed. It can be easily scratched off nowadays, which makes these items so fragile!


Best,
Michael

[Marcus den toom]

Visiting your collection was the most educational experience i ever had, but due to our time limit we didn't get to the gothic brass caps . I am sure you could tell a story about every item of more than an hour each, but i didn't have a sleeping bag so we will save that for next time (i hope )

Why was the complete powder measurer made out of lead on your bandelier from the Emden armory? It would seem to me that they are haevier and more fragile than the wooden ones? Only the weather factor is of less importance on these lead powder measures. The powder inside such a lead measurer would, i think, be less prone to humidity and thus be more effective when shot?

[Matchlock]

As so many specimens are dug up in Great Britain we may safely suppose that in the Cromwellian Age, the caps of wooden powder holders on English musketeers bandeliers were often made of lead, certainly due to the moist weather on the island.
The term 'powder cap' used in some desriptions on the site linked here is not quite correct of course; actually they are not caps for powder but for powder holders or measures.

http://finds.org.uk/database/search/...objecttype/cap

m

[Marcus den toom]

Thank you Michael,

I recieved the lead end cap today and made better pictures of this common gold
This neat little thing smells like sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride), anyone knows why this might be? I read on the internet that ammonium chloride was used to clean metals for tin coating...