The study of antique firearms is a fascinating one. Contrary to usual
belief, firearms are not a late invention. They were in use before
complete suits of plate armor were made, and continued in use throughout
the entire period that plate armor was worn. Many thousands of different
specimens have been classified, but all firearms before the nineteenth
century belong to one of four types. These include (1) the cannon or
hand cannon in which the charge of gunpowder was set off by direct
application of a burning slow match or hot iron held by the shooter; (2)
the matchlock in which burning slow match or tinder was held in a clamp
attached to the gun and was brought into contact with the gunpowder by a
mechanism attached to the gun and operated by the shooter; (3) the
wheellock in which fire was not carried about, but was produced by a
mechanism like that of a modern cigarette lighter: a rough wheel was
spun around in contact with a stone (not flint, but a nodular form of
iron pyrite) so that sparks were produced to set off the gunpowder; (4)
the flintlock and its variations, in which a piece usually of flint
stone held in a clamp attached to a strong spring was moved by the
spring to strike a piece of steel, and thereby generate the spark which
would set fire to the gunpowder. The Museum’s collection includes
interesting and unusual specimens of all but the first of these types.
[Illustration: _Fig. 42. This is how a musketeer looked when he was
just getting ready to aim his gun. He has more gadgets than even a
modern infantryman._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 43. The Three Musketeers carried muskets like
this one in form, but without the elaborate inlaid decoration._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 44. Was the decoration of the gun copied from
the engraving, or the engraving from the gun?_]
The earliest, simplest form of hand firearm, the hand cannon of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, is also the least interesting
esthetically. Consisting of a simple tube of iron, it was usually
crudely formed, and quite undecorated. Such hand cannon have much
archaeological interest, but contribute nothing to the history of art.
The first step forward in the mechanization of firearms was the
matchlock, and matchlock guns also were usually crude and strictly
utilitarian, military pieces (Fig. 42). However, a few specimens of fine
quality were made for important personages, and the Museum is fortunate
in possessing precisely such a specimen (Fig. 43), the gift of the John
M. Olin Trust. The exact date and place of its manufacture are
uncertain; it could be English but seems a bit more likely to be Dutch,
toward the middle of the seventeenth century.
The lock is the standard seventeenth century matchlock, with the earlier
form of trigger resembling that of a crossbow. The serpentine which
holds the burning slow match moves upon pressure of the trigger in the
rearward direction, from the muzzle towards the butt, bringing the
burning slow match (a piece of rope impregnated with saltpeter) into
contact with the powder pan, the swiveling cover of which must first
have been opened by hand. After the slow match has ignited the priming
powder and fired the piece, a release of pressure on the trigger allows
a return spring to force the serpentine back to its original position.
Notice the shape of the serpentine, suggesting not so much a snake as a
double-headed dragon.
[Illustration: _Fig. 45. Hercules carries away Iole, daughter of
Eurytus._ (_She shows no strenuous objection._)]
Evryti regis filiam Iolam, occiso patre, aedvxit Hercvles
15 HsB 44
The barrel is one-third octagon with finely forged cross mouldings at
the change of shape as well as at breach and muzzle. The rear sight is a
steel tube, beautifully formed in partly octagonal, partly fluted and
molded sections. A flash guard extends from the pan to this rear sight
to protect the shooter’s eyes against particles of burning powder from
the pan.
It is the stock, however, which is the most remarkable feature of the
gun. This is of dark brown wood, completely covered with an elaborate
inlay of brass wire and engraved mother-of-pearl in a design of floral
scrolls issuing from vases and supporting birds and insects. A few
escutcheons are inlaid in engraved bone or white stag horn. The
elaborateness of this inlay, combined with its delicacy and taste, make
this one of the outstanding matchlock guns of the world.
The wheellock, which for the first time freed gunners from the necessity
of carrying around with them a continuously burning coil of slow match,
was invented in the early years of the sixteenth century and retained
its popularity, in Germany at least, until the very end of the
eighteenth. It thus has had a longer period of use than any other
firearm with a discharge mechanism. The Museum’s earliest wheellock,
from about 1550 (Fig. 44), has its entire octagonal barrel and lock
magnificently decorated with damascene of floral arabesques in gold and
silver. The stock is inlaid with engraved stag horn showing hunting
scenes, Hercules’ capture of Iole (whose hand he had won by conquering
her father, Eurytus, in a shooting match), and the figures of Alexander
the Great and “Der Nero”. This gun well illustrates the close
relationship which, in this day, existed between the various arts, for
these inlaid designs are copied almost exactly from a series of
engravings by Hans Sebald Beham (1500-_ca._ 1550), examples of which are
in the City Art Museum’s print collection (Fig. 45).
Another, rifled, specimen, from about 1635, formerly in the
Liechtenstein collection (Fig. 46 [2]) has a plain barrel, but the lock
is finely engraved with a hunting scene, while the stock (Fig. 47 [2])
is most elaborately inlaid with fine filigrees and engraved plates of
stag horn representing mythological characters, animals, and monsters
against an architectural and arabesque background. The stock bears the
mark of Martin Süssebecker, who was born at Liegnitz in 1593, and died
in 1668 at Dresden where he was gunmaker to the court of the Electors of
Saxony.
A light hunting rifle (Fig. 46 [3]) with a very short stock of the type
known as _tschinke_ from the fact that such guns were made at the town
of Teschen in German Silesia, dates probably from the latter part of the
seventeenth century. It has a peculiar type of wheellock of which the
mainspring and most of the other mechanism are exposed on the outside of
the lock plate. The barrel is engraved. The lock is ornamented with
openwork carving, and the stock (Fig. 47 [3]) is inlaid with
mother-of-pearl and engraved stag horn in various designs and animal
motives against a background of floral arabesques and scroll work.
A fine Italian wheellock pistol (Fig. 48) was formerly in the collection
of H. G. Keasbey. The barrel, ornamented with raised ridges giving it an
octagonal appearance, is inscribed “Lazari Cominaz”, an abbreviation of
the name of Lazarino Cominazzo, an early gunsmith of Brescia, in
northern Italy, whose work became so famous that the name was adopted by
his successors practically as a trademark. The simple but finely carved
lock and the lace-like openwork steel inlays of the stock are
characteristic of the best Brescian workmanship. The piece dates from
about 1630.
But the finest wheellocks in the collection are a “suite” consisting of
a gun and pair of pistols (Fig. 46 [4], [4A], [4B]). These three pieces
differ slightly from one another in their decoration, but they all bear
the same signature, “Claude Thomas à Espinal 1623”, and are otherwise so
similar that there is no doubt that they were intended to go together.
All have wheellocks elaborately ornamented with carving and engraving.
The pear wood stocks are magnificently carved in the round, in openwork,
and in relief, with plants, animals, and formal ornaments. They all bear
a coat of arms which has not yet been identified. On the pistols this is
on the side of the stock opposite the lock plate, but on the gun the
coat of arms is relegated to the left rear part of the stock, while the
region opposite the lock plate is ornamented with a medallion containing
the initials “C. T.”. This, together with the extraordinary elaboration
of all three pieces, suggests that this set of guns and pistols was not,
as was usually the case, made to the order of a wealthy client, but was
rather a “masterpiece” produced by a young gunmaker exhibiting all the
skill of which he was capable to prove his worthiness to attain the
title of “master gunsmith” in the gunmakers’ guild and the right to set
up a shop of his own. The coat of arms is presumably that of the noble
patron who had supported him in the past and to whom the pieces would
eventually come, but as they were made for glory and not for pay, the
gunsmith felt quite entitled to place his own initials in a prominent
position. It should be noted that though the pistols are both
smooth-bored the gun is carefully rifled. It is interesting to speculate
about the fate of Claude Thomas. It seems improbable that so skilled a
craftsman should not have been successful in his career. Yet, this set
of three pieces is the only work of this master known up to the present
time. Perhaps he tried experimenting in mechanisms as he had already in
decoration, with the result that a magnificent technician was destroyed
in the explosion of his invention. Perhaps he succumbed to the plague or
to the fortunes of war. All we know is that he could and did make some
of the most magnificent guns in the world, and here they are!
[Illustration: _Fig. 46. A group of masterpieces of the gunsmith’s
art, XVI-XVIII centuries._]
A large and heavy gun (Fig. 46 [1]) with a peculiar type of early
flintlock having an exposed mainspring and known as a _miguelet_ was
probably made in Brescia for a purchaser from the Balearic Islands. The
barrel is plain; the lock (Fig. 47 [1]) and steel mountings of the
walnut stock, however, are elaborately carved in openwork and in strong
relief. Some of the details of this carving, especially that on the
trigger guard, evidence the exquisite skill characteristic of the
Brescian gunsmiths (compare the wheellock pistol mentioned above). The
general style of most of the carving, however, shows a ruggedness of
design and a love of the grotesque characteristic of Balearic Island
taste. The barrel is inscribed “Lazari Cominaz”.
Another early flintlock variation was the _snaphaunce_, a form in which
the piece of steel struck by the flint was not attached to the cover of
the pan holding the priming powder, but was entirely separate from it
and could be turned back out of the way as a safety precaution, when
immediate use of the arm was not expected. The Museum has a fine
snaphaunce pistol in the Brescian style.
Two other pairs of pistols with normal flintlocks are excellent examples
of Brescian work. One (Fig. 46 [6]) from about 1640-1660 has barrels
with longitudinal ridging about one-third of their length and with the
full inscription “Lazarino Cominazzo”. The locks are lightly engraved to
give an impression of very shallow relief carving, and bear the
signature of “Giovanni Bourgognone in Brescia”. The walnut stocks are
ornamented with openwork steel similar to those on the wheellock pistol
above described. The other pair (Fig. 46 [5]), possibly somewhat
earlier, have barrels octagonal for about one-sixth of their length.
These bear the inscription “Lazaro Lazarino” (presumably a son of the
great Lazarino Cominazzo or of one of his namesakes). The stocks are of
walnut. The locks and the large and numerous mounts on the stock are
elaborately chiseled steel in strong relief with designs of animals,
monsters, and semi-human figures against a background of floral
arabesques.
Not all flintlocks were on firearms. The same mechanism was used on
tinder boxes, alarm clocks, and gunpowder testers. The powder tester
(Fig. 49) was like a pistol with a friction cover closing the mouth of
the barrel. It was loaded (of course without a bullet) and fired. The
force of the explosion blew the cover away from the barrel against the
friction of a heavy spring; the distance which it moved gave an index of
the strength of the gunpowder.
[Illustration: _Fig. 47. Details of fine gunsmithing._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 48. This was what a gentleman carried in a
holster at his saddle-bow in mid-seventeenth century Italy._]
Fig. 50 illustrates a very complete outfit of pistols and accessories
made at Lisbon, Portugal, by Jacinto Xavier in 1799. There are a pair of
double barreled holster pistols for rides abroad, and a pair of small
but deadly pocket pistols for self defense or card table arguments. With
these are the accessories and tools appropriate to them: powder flask,
powder measure, bullet molds, oil can, hammer, screw driver, awl, (for
cleaning the touch holes), and box for spare flints and bullets. All are
enclosed in a handsome mahogany case.
The outfit is definitely that of a dandy, for every piece is beautifully
made and exquisitely decorated. The steel parts of the pistols are
brilliantly polished or deeply blued. The stocks are delicately inlaid
with rococo scrolls of silver wire. The oil can is a dainty hexagonal
urn. Even the hammer and screw driver deserve in their own right places
in a museum display.
[Illustration: _Fig. 49. Not a weapon, but a device to test the
strength of gunpowder. Yet just as beautiful as though it were
deadly._]
Students of the history of arms will delight in the holster pistols, for
these have each two barrels side by side, while a single flintlock fires
each in turn. The powder pan which catches the sparks from the flint is
divided into two parts: that on the right transmits the ignition
directly to the right hand barrel; that on the left is covered by a
slide operated by a thumb piece on the left side of the pistol. When
this slide is pulled back, a second priming charge is exposed, so that
the lock may be snapped again to fire the left hand barrel. Both barrels
may be unscrewed by means of a wrench attached to the bullet mold; they
are loaded from the breach with a slightly oversized bullet which will
not move through the barrel until the pistols are fired.
[Illustration: _Fig. 50. A gadgeteer’s dream. The big pistols are
double barreled, and each of the little ones has three bayonets and
a corkscrew!_]
The little pocket pistols are a gadgeteer’s dream. They have invisible
triggers, which are only exposed when the lock is cocked. Each has on
the right side a tiny triangular bayonet which springs into position at
a touch on a catch. On the left side is a strong, light, knife blade
similarly operated. Above each barrel is a second smaller knife blade
(just right for trimming a quill pen), which may be pushed forward from
a housing which conceals and protects it. And in the butt of each pistol
is hidden a small but, effective corkscrew. What more could Beau Brummel
himself desire?
The final item for which we have space is a flintlock pistol (Fig. 51)
of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It bears the
signature “Derby à Paris”. Nothing seems to be known of this gunmaker;
whether he was a Frenchman with an English name or an English gunsmith
working in France must be left for future research to determine. In any
case, he was a master of his craft. The pistol is in beautiful
condition, though the blue color of the metal is a later restoration, no
doubt based on the original finish of the weapon. The barrel and lock
are finely engraved and partially gilt; the walnut stock is fitted with
a gilded butt cap and inlaid with silver wire in delicate arabesque
scrolls. Attached to the top of the barrel is a short bayonet of bright
steel; this is mounted with a spring device in such a way that the
bayonet can be folded back when not needed, but at a touch of the thumb
upon the spring catch, will fly forward and lock in position for use.
[Illustration: _Fig. 51. A repeating flintlock pistol. A thousand of
these in one place could have changed the history of the world!_]
The most remarkable feature of this pistol, however, is its ingenious
repeating mechanism. The type, though rare, is well known. It seems to
have been invented about one hundred years previous, toward the close of
the seventeenth century, by a Florentine gunsmith named Lorenzoni.
During the following hundred years it was extensively copied. Arms with
this type of mechanism are known bearing the signatures of Austrian,
German, French, English, and Spanish gunsmiths. Variations and
improvements show themselves from time to time, but a complete study of
the Lorenzoni type of flintlock repeater has yet to be written. Its
general principle, however, is as follows: a cylinder of brass, lying
transversely across the body of the pistol, can be rotated a half turn
by a lever. As this is done, the cylinder picks up a bullet, gunpowder,
and priming powder, and conveys them to the proper positions for firing.
Lugs on the cylinder also close the pan cover and cock the hammer. The
magazines hold supplies for eight shots, which can thus be fired with
practically the speed of the single action frontier revolver which was,
for many years, the most famous of American arms. Think what changes in
history a liberal supply of breech-loading repeating firearms of this
type might have made had it been available throughout the eighteenth
century! But unfortunately very few gunsmiths were skillful enough to do
the precise work required on an arm of this type, and all who ever lived
would not have been able to make enough of them to outfit a regiment.
Such arms were rare and costly, and only princes could afford them, but
we are fortunate that this specimen has come down to us to show what
Master Derby of Paris could do generations before the day of Colt,
Winchester, and the all-destructive Atom.