POST MEDIEVAL TOY

1700

Incomplete cast copper alloy toy cannon, described as if it were a functioning cannon. The terminal of the breech end of the cannon has a rounded knop or cascabel button which has two incised circumferential lines and is 6 mm in diameter. The first base ring is 10.4 mm in diameter, but very worn, and is 4 mm from the first astragal (moulding encircling the barrel of the cannon), which is 10.3 mm in diameter, and on either side of the vent or touch hole for gunpowder, which is 2.8 mm in diameter and 7 mm along the barrel from the edge of the cascabel. The distance along the barrel, between the edge of the cascabel and the second astragal is 31 mm, and this astragal is 9 mm in diameter, but is also very worn and would have originally been raised more proud of the surface of the barrel. Beyond the second astragal, the barrel of the cannon is broken but it would have originally had two cylindrical trunnions at about this point, half way along the barrel. These side trunnions sat in the top of the cheeks of the gun carriage and enabled the piece to be elevated and mounted on to a wooden wheeled carriage like that depicted in Bailey (1993) on page 37, No.12. There would also have been a muzzle astragal as the barrel tapered and then flared outwards to the mouth of the cannon. Within the muzzle there would have been a small bore size of about 5 mm in diameter. The cannon was probably a working model and miniature cannon such as this example may not have been toys for children but may have been used by adults.Bosomworth (1992) illustrates two similar brass toy cannon, one on a wooden model of an eighty-one ton gun carriage, on page 317, nos.16123-4, which are dated from the Victorian period.Bailey (1993) illustrates a similar examples on page 37, nos.1 & 5, which are dated from the 18th century.Read (1988) illustrates a similar example on page 206, no.1439, which is dated from the 18th to the 19th century.