17th Century Puzzle

[bluelake]

Originally Posted by Philip

Thomas:
To answer your question (or attempt to do so), yes I do believe that the type of snaphaunces in Dmitry's photos are very likely the sort of thing the Korean troops were exposed to in their encounters with the Russians in the early 17th cent. I'm just hoping that you'll uncover in a S. Korean archive an old military text or manual that has a woodblock illustration of the Korean version of one of these, just as we have similar documentation of Chinese copies of Portuguese proto-flintlocks.

Thanks again, Philip. I've been trying to find some local evidence of what type of rock lock the Koreans came into contact with. The biggest problem is that so many records (and other things) were lost or destroyed since that time due to invasions, uprisings, occupation, and a major civil war. Still, I sort through stacks of old books every time I come across them just on the off-chance I might find something important.

Slightly OT, but the loss of things reminded me of a story I was told just last year. The general who was the commander of Korean forces in 1871 when the US attacked, and who was killed in the fighting, had his boyhood home south of the city of Seoul. My wife and I visited there as we were in the area. One village person told us a story that made my heart sink. The general's armor, sword, etc. were kept in the home (the home is still there); back in the 1970s, someone gathered it all up and sold it to a junk dealer who was passing by with his cart.