Ca. 1500 to 1650: Bandeliers for Arquebusiers and Musketeers

[Matchlock]

More detailed studies on those Swedish (?) bandeliers, the main belt consisting of seal hide.

m

[Matchlock]

A very spacious but delicate leather pouch on an arquebusier's bandelier of Swiss type, 1st half to mid-16th century, in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (NM) Nuremberg; the small powder measures are of tinned iron. This enormous pouch certainly not only answered the purpose of holding balls but had other small accouterments as well: e.g. for wadding and cleaning tools like scourers etc. that were screwed to the threaded finial of the ramrod.
A bandelier of the same type is preserved in the reserve collection of the Historisches Museum Basel, Switzerland; the straight edges of the trapezoid powder flask denote that it is early 16th c., the leather is tooled with an episcopal staff, the city arms of Basel.
The six small iron flasks are tinned and covered with thin leather (now mostly missing). Cf. my earliest bandelier, posts #1 and 2. I believe the powder measures on my bandelier were originally covered with leather as well, just to keep them from rattling; also, the tannin acid of the leather may account for their being heavily rusted. Today, only the leather cover of the match hider lid is still present.

Author's photos, 1993.


To Martin Moser:
The small round, brown priming flask with the integral stand is also early 16th c. and exactly the type to go perfectly with your snap-tinderlock arquebus! Sadly, some of the photos are out of focus.


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Contemporary illustrations of a musketeer equiped with his bandelier, from Jacob de Gheyn's Wapenhandelinghe Van Roers, Mvsqvetten Ende Spiessen. Achtervolgende De Ordre Van Syn Excellentie Maurits, Prince Van Orangie, Graue Van Nassau, Etc, Gouverneur Ende Capiteyn Generael Ouer Gelderlant, Hollant, Zeelant, Vtrecht, Overyssel, Etc., S. Graven Hague, 1607 (somtimes given as 1608).

An incomplete but colored copy was sold at Bonhams.

m

[Matchlock]

Lately I found this anachronistic illustration of soldiers of the Royal Danish Army 1675-79, depicting the latest stage of development of a matchlock musket and - the musketeer wearing a bandelier...

m

[Matchlock]

A French bandelier of fine workmanship (location unknown), and another of average make, together with a caliverman's flask and a ball mold, at the Archäologisches Landesmuseum Brandenburg.

Some period artwork depicting musketeers, from top:

- Hendrick Goltzius, ca. 1585
- Spanish musketeers, ca. 1620

[Matchlock]

A French bandelier of fine workmanship (location unknown) and another of average make, together with a caliverman's flask and a ball mold, at the Archäologisches Landesmuseum Brandenburg.

Some period artwork depicting musketeers, from top:

- Danish musketeers in array for exercise, ca. 1660
- a musketeer, by Johan Boxel, ca. 1650
- a French musketeer, ca. 1660 - a date confirmed by the rounded form of the buttstock of his matchlock musket
- four colored engravings from the exercise manual by Estienne Mignon, 1674

m

[Matchlock]

A good bandelier from the same series as the ones in post #19 is in the Landszeughaus Graz.

m

[Matchlock]

In Great Britain, leaden caps for the wooden power holders on musketeers bandeliers of the Cromwellian Age are often excavated but complete bandleier charge holders made of lead are rare on the island as well. Of course they meant a considerable weight for the man to bear, in spite of the damp climate.

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


The last two samples attached here very much remind me of the earliest charger caps in my collection, shown at the beginning of this thread: early 16th c. at the latest. As the patina denotes, they too are made of a thin copper alloy (brass).


m