Matchlock Petronels, Germany, ca. 1550-1600

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by fernando

Thst's what hit me; apparently Portuguese looked the same.

Of course they did, Nando; the Portuguese have always ranked among the best!!! And at least one of them still does ...

m

[fernando]

Flattering Bavarians

[Matchlock]

Yeah, my friend, that's what we are ...

m

[Matchlock]

Two decorated, early (ca. 1570), large-bore cand heavyweight matchlock petronel muskets, in the Bayerisches Armeemuseum (Bavarian Army Museum) Ingolstadt; author's photos of May 1988.

The fruitwood stock of the first inlaid with engraved staghorn or bone plaques, showing hop decoration that is characteristic of the style of the 1560's to ca. 1580. The barrel octagonal throughout, and struck with the Nuremberg proof mark.
Please note that the delicate buttstock is reinforced with an iron strap, which is often seen on Nuremberg petronels (cf. the Nuremberg petronel in the Zürich museum, posted above). Nuremberg and Augsburg makers usually provided the best workmanship.
The serpentine (match- or tinderholder) is a modern and stylistically inapt 'restoration'.

The stock of the second sparsely decorated with arabesques and a few oval, engraved staghorn or bone plaques. The serpentine definitely shows North Italian influence, and may not belong; the barrel octagonal to round, with short, swamped and ornamentally iron-carved muzzle section.
The original long and tubular backsight and pan cover are missing.


A basic warning to prospective buyers of a petronel:

The chance to acquire a heavily 'restored' and altered piece is over 80 per cent! Most of the petronels I have seen, in musems, at dealers or auctions, were shortened by about 25 per cent, often altered as early as in the 18th and 19th century. The decoration was often faked, and the long tubular back sight was nearly always missing. The highly ornamented piece in the British museum is a complete late 19th century (Spitzer) fake, with a few parts recycled.
And believe me: it takes decades of closest studies to tell the good from the bad ...


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

One last glimpse into the large-bore muzzle ...

Note that the iron finial (German: Setzerkopf) of the wooden ramrod is threaded for a little tool like a worm or scourer, to clean the barrel or pull out the ball.
I attached three photos of my collection of 16th/17th century worms and scourers.

All guns preserved at the Landeszeughaus Graz equiped with a so-called 'patch box' (German: Kolbenfach) in their buttstocks, still retain their original worm and scourer in that stock recess - these little tools have been in there since the guns entered the Graz armory 500 to 350 years ago! The Graz armory was turned into a museum in the second half of the 17th century!!!
On early guns, that buttstock recess, beneath a sliding wooden cover, actually was not for storing patches but little accesories like these. Butt trap would be the correct English term.

I attached a close-up of a matchlock pertronel of ca. 1566-70 in the Graz armory, with the box cover detached, and showing the two tools, as well as close-ups of them.

A very fine, Nuremberg-manufactured military wheellock musket of ca. 1600 in my collection, with straight, so-called German buttstock (deutscher Wangenschaft), also retains these two tools in the butt trap. It came from the Graz armory.
Like almost all weapons in Graz, mine, too, is preserved in virtually mint condition throughout, with the lock plate retaining its original bluing, and the original pyrite wrapped in a strip of lead, and clamped in the jaws of the dog for 400 years!
Two photos attached.


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Here is the link to my latest research report on one of the earliest predecessors of petronel stocks on long guns; those long guns were aimed held firmly in front of the arquebusier's chest, with one hand firmly grabbing the downcurved buttstock: a short Landsknecht/mercenay's matchlock aquebus of ca.1520-1530, with an older brass/'bronze' barrel from ca. 1490-1510 re-used:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...+arquebus+1520


m

[Matchlock]

There is a representation of arquebusiers carrying matchlock petronels, datable to ca. 1570;
from: Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber: Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste. Leipzig, 1818.
("The Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste ("Universal Encyclopaedia of Sciences and Arts") was a 19th-century German encyclopaedia ... also known as the "Ersch-Gruber"):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allgeme...nd_K%C3%BCnste