  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 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. Fig. 43. The Three Musketeers carried muskets like this one in form, but without the elaborate inlaid decoration. 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. Fig. 45. Hercules carries away Iole, daughter of Eurytus. (She shows no strenuous objection.) Evryti regis filiam Iolam, occiso patre, aedvxit Hercvles 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 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! 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. Fig. 47. Details of fine gunsmithing. 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. 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 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 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. |
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