1967 Cannon

1967) BOMBARD OF WROUGHT IRON CIRCA 1425:

Description: This cannon is too big and heavy to be considered a hand cannon and not big enough to be a bombard designed to tear down castle walls. Instead, it would have been attached to a carriage or castle wall and possibly used as an anti-personnel weapon. It can be identified from its short, relatively stout proportions as an early example of its kind. It would have been secured to its stock using iron bands. The lug recoil hook on the rear bottom would serve the function of a recoil suppressor by transversing the stock and absorbing the recoil. The lifting ring at the top would have been used to lift and transport the hexagon powder chamber with roping decoration, a touch point with a channel, and moldings at the muzzle.

Dating: This example certainly postdates the vase-shaped Loshult example. It was probably made in the first half of the 15th-century.

Dimensions: Bore 65mm. Length 290mm. The height from the vertical lifting ring and the bottom of the lug is 290mm.

Discussion: The introduction of the hand cannon/gun likely closely followed that of the cannon itself. The earliest unequivocal evidence for the existence of guns dates from 1326 when the Council of Florence passed a decree authorizing the appointment of two men to make metal cannons (cannones de metallo) for the defense of the Republic. The “English Royal Privy Wardrobe Accounts” for the year 1346 refers to guns with tillers (cum telariis), probably meaning handguns. The accounts of the Italian commune of Perugia in 1364 specifically refer to “500 bombards of a span in length, which can be carried in hand” (Blair, op. cit., p. 40; and Blackmore, op. cit., p. 5). The earliest reference to the handgun by name occurs in the English Royal Privy Wardrobe accounts for 1388, which refer to “canones paruos vocatos handgunnes” (Blair, op. cit., p. 40; and Blackmore, op. cit., p. 6, where the date of the document is correctly rendered).

Conclusion: A rare find. Superb condition. This appears not to be a ground find.  Stone display not included. Contact me for a very reasonable price!!!*