Crossbow
Culture
Southern German
Dateabout 1475
MediumWood, painted parchment, cord, bone, horn, iron, modern leather
Dimensions72 × 11 × 91 cm (28 3/8 × 4 5/16 × 35 13/16 in.), 7 lb, 14 oz (weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.579
DescriptionThe composite bow is covered with parchment decorated in monochrome to simulate fishskin or snakeskin. Along the length of the back, this skin decoration gives way to a panel of foliate scrollwork containing a figure: the panel at the left tip is damaged but that the right tip represents Eve holding the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. A similar, but narrower and plainer, band runs the length of the belly. The long and elegant wood tiller is thick at the fore-end, where the cord bridles secure the bow, then tapers and is cut away on the underside for the thumb-and-finger grip before expanding to the area around the release nut and lock; from here the tiller tapers gradually to the butt. A cranequin-lug passes through tiller some six inches behind the release nut. The top of the tiller is reinforced with plain bone for its entire length with a bone bolt guide or rest slotted into the fore-end so that it can be adjusted laterally. Shaped panels of horn are let into the sides of the tiller around the area of the lock and on the underside around the areas of the trigger and the original string and bound cord bridles. A small iron stirrup or hanging loop is attached to the back of the bow by more recent leather bindings. The long lever trigger operates directly on the iron-reinforced underside of the horn release nut: this rotates on a cord binding tied around and through tiller and nut.
ProvenanceIn the collections of the Dukes of Brunswick, successively at Kloster Neustift, Brixen, Schloss Blankenburg and Schloss Marienburg. Purchased from Peter Finer (Warwickshire, England) on February 2006. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
On View
Not on viewCollections
late 1700s-early 1800s
