The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Wheel-Lock Carbine from the Bodyguard of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Archbishop of Salzburg (ruled 1587-1612)

Wheel-Lock Carbine from the Bodyguard of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Archbishop of Salzburg (ruled 1587-1612)

c. 1590–1600
(Zell am Wallersee, active late 1500s–early 1600s)
Austria, Zell, 16th century
steel, wood (walnut) inlaid with staghorn
On Loan from the Collection of Justin Kohn and Family 55.2000
Location: 210A Armor Court

Did You Know?

Raitenau had a fierce dispute with his neighbor Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria; he was eventually captured and imprisoned for life.

Description

At the beginning of the 1500s the handfire weapon began to change the face of European warfare. a new type of ignition system was invented: the wheel-lock, the first self-igniting mechanism for guns. This new technology was particularly attractive to rich nobleman who commissioned such guns for hunting. Gunmakers lavished all form of embellishment on these firearms: chiseling, engraving, and gilding of the metal parts as well as the use of rare woods for the stock and inlays of horn, bone, and ivory.
  • The Armory of the City of Salzburg
    in 1954
    Theodore Dexter (1885-?), Topeka, Kansas
    Herbert G. Ratner Junior, Greensberg, PA
    -2000
    (Michael R. Zomber Co., Culver City, CA, sold to Justin Kohn)
    2000-
    Justin Kohn, Sausalito, CA
  • Dexter, Fred Theodore. Forty-Two Years' Scrapbook of Rare Ancient Firearms. Los Angeles: W.F. Lewis, 1954. no. 1599
    Ramharter, Von Johannes, "Der Waffenbesitz der Fursterzbischofe von Salzburg und sein Verbleib," Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde (2009). pp. 334-37 www.zobodat.at
  • {{cite web|title=Wheel-Lock Carbine from the Bodyguard of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Archbishop of Salzburg (ruled 1587-1612)|url=false|author=Georg Zellner|year=c. 1590–1600|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/55.2000