POST MEDIEVAL TOY

1600

Post medieval copper alloy miniature cannon, probably dating between 1750 to 1850 AD as it is similar to guns of the eighteenth century and later. The trunnions suggest the gun was intended to be mounted in a gun carriage, so possibly a copy of a naval gun or field piece. Many of these cannons were fired and are often found with exploded barrels from mis-fires. Forsyth and Egan (2005:79-84) discuss toy cannons and think the ones that actually fired were widespread by the end of the sixteenth century. Most surviving examples show features that were developed in seventeenth - eighteenth century. The gun dates to sometime between c1600 and c1900AD, but probably dating to the last half of eighteenth, or first half of the nineteenth century.The length is 43mm, the width is 13mm at the trunnions, maximum thickness/diameter of barrel 8mm.Similar, but not identical, records on the database include LANCUM-6DAEA2, WILT-0AA462, and LANCUM-B5FE32 amongst others.