Incendiary quarrels/arrows/crossbow bolts

[Marcus den toom]

Hi Andi and Michael,

Thank you both for your answer, the reusing of fabric seemed the most likely to me as well, only the fact it was red seemed odd.

Well Andi, this great collection can be found in the Netherlands at castle "Toom" :P (not really a castle, but just my own room).

I wonder how they came by those Gothic chasubles, maybe at the church flea market???

[Andi]

Last Thursday i have been at Museum Veste Coburg in northern Bavaria and had a long and very interesting conversation with the museums director Dr Alfred Geibig who gives me some valuable hints. The red colour of the fabric in Marcus den tooms qouites can be a result of a chemical reaction of mercury and sulfur forming cinnabar compounds. Cinnabar is a bright red pigment which was often used in arts. Many early authors of fireworks books and works on blackpowder were recommending the addition of metals such as mercury to powder mixtures. According to modern chemical knowledge the mercury as no positive effect on the powders brisance and its use was maybe based on a spiritual background according to early alchemy.

[Marcus den toom]

Hi Andi,

Thank you for this information, i think that your story might be more applicable to my qouites. Though the reusing of fabric is a know fact, it seems unlikely to use a expensive dye on a crude fabric as those on my qouites...
Also, such a expensive piece of coloured fabric would likely be reused on something else than pitch drenched wreaths

[Andi]

Hello Marcus

Is the textile braid on this image visible by an damage of the quoits surface or was it brought outside by intention - probably as a ligting fuse/match? As far as I understood the publications of Dr. Alfred Geibig no quoits were known so far where a lighting match was visible on the outside.

Do you know where your - very nice - quoits were originating from?

[Marcus den toom]

Hi Andi,

I can see no damages to this part of the qouites, but i do notice a ridge of dried pitch.. like it stood upright when it dried. I think this piece of fabric somehow escaped the pitch. One remarkable thing i noticed is how smooth the outer surface of this example is, it really looks like someone tried to create something nice rather than a monstress ring from hell

They came from the "veste Coburg" , Germany.

[Eric Slyter]

Thanks for the information on the incendiary heads, Matchlock, and I hope you are fully recovered!

[Matchlock]

Hi Eric,

Thank you so much for wishing me well.
I'm afraid though that nothing will ever change.
The specialists at an orthopedic clinic told me they could not really do anything for me that my health insurance would pay for. I have to face the facts that disability, extreme pain in spite of opium and other pain 'killers' will be unavoidable, and so be will limited stays at hospitals every few weeks.

Best,
m

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Andi

Hello Marcus

Do you know where your - very nice - quoits were originating from?

Hi Andi,

What even Marcus most probably does not know: his quoits, just like two of some specimens in my collection, came from an old Austrian collection based in Linz/Austria; the owner, whom I knew well, sadly died some time ago.

Best,
m

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Andi

Hello Marcus
Is the textile braid on this image visible by an damage of the quoits surface or was it brought outside by intention - probably as a ligting fuse/match?
As far as I understood the publications of Dr. Alfred Geibig no quoits were known so far where a lighting match was visible on the outside.

That's right, Andi,

The outer layer always seems to have been either black tar mingled with black powder, or sulphur that turned from yellowish to a grayish white in the course of the centuries.
On a couple of quoits in the Museum Nordico (City Museum) of Linz/Austria though, the wound matchcord can still be seen beneath the crumbly mixture of tar and black powder (attachments, author's photos of 1989).
In the background, a bundle of matchcord for muskets is displayed, and on the right hand side there are lots of crossbow bolts, the hafts grown musty.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Here are two of the quoits (German: Pechkränze) that came from the inventory of the old Veste (fortress) of Coburg, Northern Bavaria.
They consist of matchcord soaked in tar and wound around a wooden ring core; their diameter differs between 40 and 45 cm, the average weight is 2.5 kg.
The second, smaller type of quoits attached features intertwined matchcord; at a diameter of ca 30 cm, their weight is only 500 grams.
Source: Alfred Geibig: Gefährlich und schön. Coburg, 1996, p. 122f.

m

[Andi]

Two photos of two hemp rope quoits I made at Veste Coburg two weekends ago - unfortunately I hat not mutch time to see the exhibition so I just quickly shot the photos without any preparations against the refelctions on the show case glass screens. --- I have to visit the museum again having more time for the exhibition