Wheel-Lock Carbine for a Harquebusier
Culture
German
Date1640–1650
MediumWood, steel, brass
Dimensions87 × 56 cm, 14 mm bore (34 1/4 × 22 1/16), 4 lb, 14 oz (weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.432
DescriptionSmoothbore two-stage steel barrel of circular section for half its length, becoming octagonal to the breech, the stages divided by a low, molded band. Fixed front brass and rear iron sights. Full-length, ebonized wood (walnut?) stock with iron end cap, trigger guard and butt-plate. Flat lockplate with exposed wheel, both having delicate, etched foliate tendrils and flowers. Lock secured by a pair of screws, the rear of which has an open loop terminal with large ring for the clip of a bandoleer. The plain iron trigger guard is angularly recurved, and held to the stock by a pair of screws.
The stock has a deeply rounded swelling at the lock, a slim wrist, and a flat, irregularly triangular, rather flat butt with nailed-on iron butt plate. Original wooded ramrod with plain iron end cap.
ProvenanceAnonymous vendor, Sotheby's (Zurich), sold 14 December 1999, lot 309, ill. an anonymous private Swiss collector purchased for the Museum by Walter J. Karcheski, Jr., Senior Curator of Arms and Armor, from Andrew Lumley (Thirsk, U.K.), at the Baltimore Gun Show (Timonium, MD) on 18 March 2001. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
On View
Not on viewCollections
late 1700s-early 1800s
