POST MEDIEVAL TOY

1600

An incomplete post-Medieval cast copper-alloy toy musket (gun). c. 1600-c. 1640.It comprises a barrel, part of stock and a small portion of a trigger guard. The outside of the barrel is unevenly faceted, hexagonal in cross-section and has a circular bore, 3.7mm in diameter. On one side of the gun, where the barrel joins the stock, there is a small conical pan (touch-hole). To the right of this hole there is a small rectangular moulding. The underside of the barrel is damaged where there is a hole with ragged edges. Guns of this type were based on the match-lock 'petronels' of the 16th and 17th centuries, and were fully working models. The moulding in front of the pan represented the mechanism which automatically levered a match into the powder, but on these toys the match would simply have been touched into the pan by hand. Examples are known as early as the late 16th century, but since neither the later wheel-lock nor flint-lock could be made in a working miniature form, they may have continued in popularity long after the full-size match-lock became obsolete. This object appears to be undecorated. The colour of the metal is dull reddish brown and it has tiny flecks of dark green patina. The breaks are old. 55.4 x 15.0 x 7.1mm. Weight: 9.68g. This gun is possibly an Egan and Forsyth's Type 2 dated 1600-1640 (Egan and Forsyth, 2005, Toys, Trifles and Trinkets, Museum of London, page 92).