German hackbut barrel

[Matchlock]

No, Marcus,


If I had one I had posted it, it is in a class case that the BAM will open for nobody. But from what I can see the spring must be located under the sear, just like on a wheellock mechanism. Your editing thought was pefectly right!

I attach images of the similarly construed lock of my Tusco-Emilian (Brescia) snap-tinderlock arquebus of ca. 1525-30, the serpentine shaped as a seahorse.


m

[Matchlock]

The Musée de l'Armée in Paris holds this perfectly preserved specimen of a Nuremberg hackbut of ca. 1535-40, complete in all its original parts; it was never fitted with a ramrod.

You can see how close I got to the original by choosing the Ingolstadt lock mechanism as an adequate association. Interestingly, the tinderholder on the Paris piece is a movable clamp, instead of a wing nut.


m

[Matchlock]

An early hackbut with unusually finely preserved three-stage wrought-iron octagonal barrel, ca. 1460-70, at the museum of Granson castle, Switzerland. It retains its original stock but never had a lock mechanism.

m

[Matchlock]

Most barrels from this series are dated, the earliest year being 1554; one of the most common dates, i.e. when especially many pieces were bought from the gunmakers, was 1557, but years of the 1560's until as late as 1587 are also to be found.
The highly figured, blackened full stocks are of pearwood (!), which is highly unusual for large and heavy pieces, and fitted mostly with snapping tinderlock mechanisms, their main springs mounted on the outside of the lock plate, and fitted with a provision against cocking the tinderholder too far.
Many of the tinderholders are fitted with a wing nut but mostly just a movable clamp is employed.

In my collection there is a good, detached barrel dated 1557 from that Graz series, preserved in all its virtually 'untouched' patina.


Best,
m

[Matchlock]

Four more.

m