Late Gothic Crossbows and Accouterments

[Micke D]

Another, earlier, ca. 1525, with finely engraved bone handle

Hello again Michael!

On what do you date the cranequin in post #248 to around 1525?
To me it looks more be a late 15th century cranequin because I think the string hooks and the small housing are more 15th than 16th century in design.
It's only the nicely ingraved bone/horn handle that I think is 16th c, but that could be a 16th replacement.

I searched their website but could not find any other photos of it, do you know if there are more photos of it? I would need a photo of the bottom of the housing to date it more exactly.

[Micke D]

Is there evidence that there the distances bethween the two "nutfingers" were standardised in one area or at least at one town? Does someone know about the distance bethween the nutfingers of the crossbows in Hermannsstadt?

Hi David!

I 'think' at least towns, maybe even regions, must have had some standards for a lot of military stuff including distance between nut fingers.
I think that Josef Alm mentions this in his book, someone in a 15th c German town gets an order to trim crossbow bolts so they fit between nut fingers.

The Hermannstadt crossbows are a very interesting group of crossbows as they are said to all be an old Zeughaus inventory, and if that's correct, they will be military weapons and should probably have the same distance between the nut fingers.

[Matchlock]

Hi Micke D,


You are right, of course,

That cranequin sold at Nagel auctions in Stuttgart might be as early as ca. 1490-1500. I actually based my dating on the bone handle, and my policy has always been to choose a later date rather than one too early. Decades of experience have shown that certain early criteria have often been found on rather late items, so as a principle I have been looking for the latest, the newest criterion on any piece.

Sadly Nagel had only this one image on their site, and the sale is over.


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Hi David and Micke,


Concerning the Sibiu/Hermannstadt Gothic crossbows in the Brukenthal-Museum:

You guys seem to know a lot on them - may I ask you what source your knowledge came from?
All I have is the attached b/w photograph from 1934!


Best,
Michael

[Micke D]

The most interesting thing about that photo is, as you know 😉, the rack with crossbows on the right! I guess it is THE rack that they have been hanging on since the 15th or 16th century.

Thank you for the photo Michael, I had not seen it before, only a drawing of the rack with crossbows in Holger Richter's crossbow book.

I will upload what I know about the Hermannstadt crossbows in the evening.

[David Jaumann]

Your´re welcome for the pictures, Michael!

Nice picture!
Like Micke, I did only know the painted version on Holger Richters book.
That´s also where I got the information about the Hermannsstadt crossbows. Unfortunatelly, it´s at my home right now and not here in Innsbruck, where I recently started studying archeology. But I´m also already eager to read Mickes post about the crossbows.


@Micke:
So it really seems that there were some standarts for the distance bethween the nutfingers. I noticed that there are maybe two "types" of bolts.
The first one was probably especially made for one specific crossbow or a special armoury (look at post #25). The rear end is tapered gradually.
The second type could have been a mass product for many armouries, which had to be adjusted in each case. On post #254 you can see that these bolts were probably carved with a knife to adjust them to the nut. That would perfectly match to your answer of my question.
What do you think?

Best wishes,
David

[Matchlock]

Hi David and Micke,


I asked my friend, who collects 15th-16th century crossbows and all sorts of accouterments concerning a possible standardization of the width of the recess in the center of the nut that we had been discussing.

He told me that his collection comprised 6 (!) crossbows with composite horn bows, 19 cranequins and some 200 quarrels/crossbow bolts from various provenances, including some incredibly rare incendiary arrows.

Please see
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...bow+collection

His earliest crossbow is the fine and perfectly preserved piece from the Harold L. Peterson colln. (attached here), and it can be dated as early as ca. 1430-40!!!
Interestingly, he thinks that there was no such thing like a standardized space between the nut 'fingers'. He also emphasized that a great number of the bolt shafts in his collection had oval (!) rear ends while the rest was obviously cut to shape to fit that space between the nut 'fingers'. His conclusion is that the quarrel shafts were only cut right before they were about to 'see service'.
And: not all quarrels fit the nuts of any crossbow.


Best,
Michael