Baltic Snaphaunce

[Philip Chua]

Happened to ask a museum curator in Sweden about one of the earliest snaplocks and he sent me this reply which has a link to excellent photos.some


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Good morning,



Thank you for your e-mail and questions. The weapon you are searching for is probably inv. no.16317. It can be followed back in the in the Royal Armoury inventories to Gustavus Adolphus armoury. However, the weapon is of much earlier date and there are several suggestions to how old it may be. There is a rather vague dating just saying 1540-1560. Then there is a more precise suggesting that in 1556, in the Arboga workshops, King Gustav Vasa had snaplocks mounted in guns imported from Nürnberg. The preserved gun could be one of those.



You can find the weapon published in the public database and there are some pictures if you scroll to the bottom of the page. snapplåsbössa, lägglås, utfjäderslås - långt rör, pipa Nürnberg - Sök i samlingarna (shm.se)



Should you have any more questions you can write me an e-mail.



Best wishes



Andreas Olsson
Intendent, Livrustkammarens samlingar
Curator, The Royal Armoury Collections
Telefon: +46 (0)8 402 3045
Mobil: +46 (0)76 128 02 45
E-mail: [email protected]

That appears to be the case. I've seen photos of some of these locks where some have the pan cover (a carry-over from the matchlock period) and others that don't have the cover. Apparently, the combination of the pan cover and the frizzen (battery) in the forward position acted as a safety.

The artist detail on Post # 32 and my lock on Post # 36 have a unique feature the frizzen can be turned to the right while still covering the pan. Another variation of a safety.

Rick

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

At some point that barrel was cut down. It could have been very recently.