Armor and Arms / An elementary handbook and guide to the collection in the City Art Museum of St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

by Thomas T. Hoopes

Another, rifled, specimen, from about 1635, formerly in the Liechtenstein collection ([Fig. 46] [2]) has a plain barrel, but the lock is finely engraved with a hunting scene, while the stock ([Fig. 47] [2]) is most elaborately inlaid with fine filigrees and engraved plates of stag horn representing mythological characters, animals, and monsters against an architectural and arabesque background. The stock bears the mark of Martin Süssebecker, who was born at Liegnitz in 1593, and died in 1668 at Dresden where he was gunmaker to the court of the Electors of Saxony.

A light hunting rifle ([Fig. 46] [3]) with a very short stock of the type known as tschinke from the fact that such guns were made at the town of Teschen in German Silesia, dates probably from the latter part of the seventeenth century. It has a peculiar type of wheellock of which the mainspring and most of the other mechanism are exposed on the outside of the lock plate. The barrel is engraved. The lock is ornamented with openwork carving, and the stock ([Fig. 47] [3]) is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and engraved stag horn in various designs and animal motives against a background of floral arabesques and scroll work.

A fine Italian wheellock pistol ([Fig. 48]) was formerly in the collection of H. G. Keasbey. The barrel, ornamented with raised ridges giving it an octagonal appearance, is inscribed “Lazari Cominaz”, an abbreviation of the name of Lazarino Cominazzo, an early gunsmith of Brescia, in northern Italy, whose work became so famous that the name was adopted by his successors practically as a trademark. The simple but finely carved lock and the lace-like openwork steel inlays of the stock are characteristic of the best Brescian workmanship. The piece dates from about 1630.

But the finest wheellocks in the collection are a “suite” consisting of a gun and pair of pistols ([Fig. 46] [4], [4A], [4B]). These three pieces differ slightly from one another in their decoration, but they all bear the same signature, “Claude Thomas à Espinal 1623”, and are otherwise so similar that there is no doubt that they were intended to go together. All have wheellocks elaborately ornamented with carving and engraving. The pear wood stocks are magnificently carved in the round, in openwork, and in relief, with plants, animals, and formal ornaments. They all bear a coat of arms which has not yet been identified. On the pistols this is on the side of the stock opposite the lock plate, but on the gun the coat of arms is relegated to the left rear part of the stock, while the region opposite the lock plate is ornamented with a medallion containing the initials “C. T.”. This, together with the extraordinary elaboration of all three pieces, suggests that this set of guns and pistols was not, as was usually the case, made to the order of a wealthy client, but was rather a “masterpiece” produced by a young gunmaker exhibiting all the skill of which he was capable to prove his worthiness to attain the title of “master gunsmith” in the gunmakers’ guild and the right to set up a shop of his own. The coat of arms is presumably that of the noble patron who had supported him in the past and to whom the pieces would eventually come, but as they were made for glory and not for pay, the gunsmith felt quite entitled to place his own initials in a prominent position. It should be noted that though the pistols are both smooth-bored the gun is carefully rifled. It is interesting to speculate about the fate of Claude Thomas. It seems improbable that so skilled a craftsman should not have been successful in his career. Yet, this set of three pieces is the only work of this master known up to the present time. Perhaps he tried experimenting in mechanisms as he had already in decoration, with the result that a magnificent technician was destroyed in the explosion of his invention. Perhaps he succumbed to the plague or to the fortunes of war. All we know is that he could and did make some of the most magnificent guns in the world, and here they are!

Fig. 46. A group of masterpieces of the gunsmith’s art, XVI-XVIII centuries.

A large and heavy gun ([Fig. 46] [1]) with a peculiar type of early flintlock having an exposed mainspring and known as a miguelet was probably made in Brescia for a purchaser from the Balearic Islands. The barrel is plain; the lock ([Fig. 47] [1]) and steel mountings of the walnut stock, however, are elaborately carved in openwork and in strong relief. Some of the details of this carving, especially that on the trigger guard, evidence the exquisite skill characteristic of the Brescian gunsmiths (compare the wheellock pistol mentioned above). The general style of most of the carving, however, shows a ruggedness of design and a love of the grotesque characteristic of Balearic Island taste. The barrel is inscribed “Lazari Cominaz”.

Another early flintlock variation was the snaphaunce, a form in which the piece of steel struck by the flint was not attached to the cover of the pan holding the priming powder, but was entirely separate from it and could be turned back out of the way as a safety precaution, when immediate use of the arm was not expected. The Museum has a fine snaphaunce pistol in the Brescian style.

Two other pairs of pistols with normal flintlocks are excellent examples of Brescian work. One ([Fig. 46] [6]) from about 1640-1660 has barrels with longitudinal ridging about one-third of their length and with the full inscription “Lazarino Cominazzo”. The locks are lightly engraved to give an impression of very shallow relief carving, and bear the signature of “Giovanni Bourgognone in Brescia”. The walnut stocks are ornamented with openwork steel similar to those on the wheellock pistol above described. The other pair ([Fig. 46] [5]), possibly somewhat earlier, have barrels octagonal for about one-sixth of their length. These bear the inscription “Lazaro Lazarino” (presumably a son of the great Lazarino Cominazzo or of one of his namesakes). The stocks are of walnut. The locks and the large and numerous mounts on the stock are elaborately chiseled steel in strong relief with designs of animals, monsters, and semi-human figures against a background of floral arabesques.

Not all flintlocks were on firearms. The same mechanism was used on tinder boxes, alarm clocks, and gunpowder testers. The powder tester ([Fig. 49]) was like a pistol with a friction cover closing the mouth of the barrel. It was loaded (of course without a bullet) and fired. The force of the explosion blew the cover away from the barrel against the friction of a heavy spring; the distance which it moved gave an index of the strength of the gunpowder.