Wheel lock rifle
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Walnut stock inlaid with engraved staghorn
- Credit Line:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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Arms and armour are rarely associated with art. However, they were influenced by the same design sources as other art forms including architecture, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, stained glass and ceramics. These sources had to be adapted to awkwardly shaped devices required to perform complicated technical functions. Armour and weapons were collected as works of art as much as military tools.
This wheel-lock rifle has a mechanism that enabled it to be carried loaded. The jaws of the lock clamped a piece of flint or a piece or pyrites designed to rub against the rough edge of the wheel projecting into the pan. The wheel was revolved at speed by a tightly coiled spring, wound by a separate spanner, and released when the gun's trigger was pulled causing sparks to ignite the gunpowder in the breech.
Sketches for wheel-locks were made by Leonardo da Vinci but their first common use was in Germany in around 1520 and they continued in use until the late seventeenth century. They were the first devices to fire guns mechanically and accelerated the development of firearms by negating the need for long and dangerous 'match' cords which had to be kept dry.
As technical devices wheel-lock guns attracted princely collectors. Many are finely chiselled and engraved as works of art, some even on their insides, to be taken apart and reassembled at pleasure. The stocks were also often decorated with fine bone and horn inlays drawing on the skills of furniture makers and engravers. Wheel-lock guns were expensive, however, and most ordinary gunners were equipped with the older style match-locks until well into the seventeenth century.
Physical description
The walnut stock is inlaid with compositions of strapwork in engraved stag-horn. On the cheek piece an escutcheon with the arms of Hatstein, and dated 1605, within a ring inscribed 'MARQUANDUS VON HATSTEIN ZU WEILBACH'. On a panel behind the barrel tang are engraved the stock-maker's initials 'HE'. The lock with domed covered wheel. To the lock-plate is attached a brass plate, formerly gilt, in the form of a sea-horse. The octagonal barrel with V-backsight and blade foresight, rifled with eight grooves. At the breech, the barrel-smith's mark, the initials 'OS' over a toothed wheel in a shaped shield.
Place of Origin
Germany (made)
Date
1605 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Walnut stock inlaid with engraved staghorn
Marks and inscriptions
An escutcheon with the arms of Hatstein, dated 1605, within a ring inscribed 'MARQUANDUS VON HATSTEIN ZU WEILBACH'.
engraved 'HE'.
the initials 'OS' over a toothed wheel in a shaped shield.
Dimensions
Length: 115.5 cm
Object history note
Historical significance: Weilbach is a small village to the east of Mainz on the north bank of the river Main.
Historical context note
Arms and armour are rarely associated with art. However, they were influenced by the same design sources as other art forms including architecture, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, stained glass and ceramics. These sources had to be adapted to awkwardly shaped devices required to perform complicated technical functions. Armour and weapons were collected as works of art as much as military tools.
This wheel-lock rifle has a mechanism that enabled it to be carried loaded. The jaws of the lock clamped a piece of flint or a piece or pyrites designed to rub against the rough edge of the wheel projecting into the pan. The wheel was revolved at speed by a tightly coiled spring, wound by a separate spanner, and released when the gun's trigger was pulled causing sparks to ignite the gunpowder in the breech.
Sketches for wheel-locks were made by Leonardo da Vinci but their first common use was in Germany in around 1520 and they continued in use until the late seventeenth century. They were the first devices to fire guns mechanically and accelerated the development of firearms by negating the need for long and dangerous 'match' cords which had to be kept dry.
As technical devices wheel-lock guns attracted princely collectors. Many are finely chiselled and engraved as works of art, some even on their insides, to be taken apart and reassembled at pleasure. The stocks were also often decorated with fine bone and horn inlays drawing on the skills of furniture makers and engravers. Wheel-lock guns were expensive, however, and most ordinary gunners were equipped with the older style match-locks until well into the seventeenth century.
Descriptive line
Wheel lock rifle, the stock inlaid with stag-horn strapwork and the arms of Hatstein, Germany, dated 1605.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Hayward, J. F., European Firearms, London, HMSO, 1969, cat. 17
A guide to the Museum Collection of firearms first published in 1955. This edition includes a large number of illustrations and a complete text revision. The items described have been selected on the grounds of artistic merit and technical or historical interest.
Materials
Brass; Steel; Walnut; Horn
Techniques
Engraving (incising); Inlay
Categories
Metalwork; Arms & Armour; Firearms
Collection code
MET
