Late Gothic Crossbows and Accouterments

[Matchlock]

This is an unusually fine German - Nuremberg or Augsburg made - cranequin of ca. 1565-70, the gear case and ratched bar both profusely etched.
Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum London, inv.no. M.73-1925.

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[Matchlock]

A very fine German Late Gothic crossbow, ca. 1450-70, together with an important contemporary cranequin that ranges among the finest of its kind preserved worldwide; the gear case is decorated and pierced with Gothic tracery in brass. The three other known specimen the quality of craftsmanship of of which compares to this sample are in the Churburg collection, Schluderns, South Tyrol, and the Odescalchi collection, Rome.
Also some crossbow bolts.
Cleveland Museum of Arts, Ohio.

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[Matchlock]

Here are the fine Late Gothic cranequins preserved in the collection of Churburg Castle, Schluderns, South Tyrol (top attachments), and in the collection of the Princes Odescalchi, Rome.

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[Micke D]

Hi Michael, and everybody else!

At first I would like to write a few words about the cranequin in post #276.
I think this could also be a cranequin that is bit older than 1550-1560. My guess is as early as 1500-1520 maybe. This piece has a combination of an older looking tooth bar and a younger looking housing.

The hooks on the tooth bar that grips the string is of a late 15th c style, not usually seen in the late 16th c. They are most often of a more robust type and a simpler in shape. The tooth bar looks like it is a bit wider than it is high; in the 15th c they usually were more or less as wide as they were high. I can’t see if it has a lighting grove in the tooth bar, which would also be a 16th c feature.

The housing on the other hand looks like a quite simple cranequin, not something fancy for showing off at the latest hunting trips, but a good working type of cranequin. The housing looks a bit wider than the 15th c cranequins. The holder for the rope ring has a flat bottom, and not a curved one as in the 15th c; they were made flat because the 16th c crossbow tillers were built wider where the cranequin stood on the tiller. Many late 15th c crossbows have pressure marks in this area because the tiller is to thin/weak.

My own taste is for the late 15th c crossbows. I don’t like the more robust tiller that came in the 16th and later centuries as much, but with the late 15th c crossbows the makers had a crossbow where the form had won over function. There are many examples of pressure marks from the cranequin on the tiller, broken side horn plates at the nut and banana shaped tillers, where the tiller is higher at the ends than at the nut.

[Micke D]

I forgot the pictures I was going to show.

The black and white picture shows the rounded under side of the rope holder, used in the 15th c.

The two pictures with the beige colored rope sling shows both the typical 15th c string hooks and also a rounded rope holder, but this one flat in the middle to sit better on the quite narrow late 15th c style tillers. Earlier 15th c tillers were rounder where the cranequin sat.

The last picture supplied by Michael shows a cranequin from 1504 with the 16th c style of string hooks.

[Micke D]

Hello again Michael!

I have been intrigued since I first read in Harmuths book about the crossbows in Hermannstadt, now Sibiu. 25 war crossbows that have been hanging in storage in an armoury between the late 15th/early 16th century and the 1930’s. Totally awesome! If they still are kept together and if it’s true that they have been hanging like that all this time, they are the only group of crossbows that I know of that we can for example use to check if a city/region has a specific measurement for the bolt to fit between the nut fingers. I saw that your friend didn’t think that, but I don’t think he have checked a group like these. Even if he has examined hundreds of crossbows, I guess they have moved between different collections during the years.

One thing that I find interesting with these crossbows is that most of them seem to have an iron hook behind the nut for a “riemenrollenspanner”, cord and pulley, and not the cranequin pegs as most other crossbows at the time, (even though the examined crossbow in the article seems to have both pulley hook and cranequin pegs). Many other crossbows from this part of the world seem to have pulley hook only.

Many of the crossbows seems also to be both long and quite sturdy, they also weigh a bit more because of that. It’s apparent from the article that a few of the horn bows were quite nicely decorated, even though they were weapons of war. I have seen discussions about that before, and I believe that in an age without advertising it would be smart to advertise your work as a crossbow maker like this. Many can see the fine crossbows of the city watch.

The composite bows could have been made by baleen “whale bone” but I guess it’s more likely that they were made by ordinary horn, even though it could very well be Ibex, stone goat horns, that is rated better than most other horns. Fritz Rohde also mentions whale bone in his article from 1934. I don’t think anyone could say for sure at that time what they were made of.

That's all for now,
Micke

[Matchlock]

Hello Micke,


Thank you for sharing all your reflections.
In order to reply substantially, I'd like to talk to my friend, the collector of earliest crossbows and accouterments.
Of course you are absolute correct emphasizing that the great number of 25 war crossbows preserved at their original place in Sibiu since the 15th century is unique.

The fact should considered, though, that there are some other old collections in Germany and Austria that hold Gothic crossbows, cranequins, quivers and bolts that have been exactly there since they were made more than 500 years ago:

- the famous Castle of Churburg, Schluderns, South Tyrol
- Schloss Ambras, Tirol, although many of their important items have been transferred to the Hofrüstkammer Vienna and to the Bavarian National Museum Munich in the 1860's when those central museums were founded
- the former arsenal of Straubing, now officially called the Gäubodenmuseum, a small city in Lower Bavaria, just some 50 km from where I live. I will post the two very fine and early (ca. 1430-40!) Late Gothic crossbows still preserved there, and a third crossbow from the Straubing arsenal is now in the collection of the Deutsche Jagd- und Fischereimuseum Munich; the right front side of the tiller of all three of them is branded with the capital letter S, the 15th c. arsenal mark of Straubing

Best wishes,
Michael