Rights Holder: Sussex Archaeological Society
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Unique ID: SUSS-EA1E15
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
An incomplete late Post Medieval to early Modern cast copper alloy toy canon, c. 1700-1900 AD. The barrel is called a cascabel and the knop at the end of the breech chamber a cascable button. The barrel has circumferential mouldings and a breech chamber with two vent-holes sometimes referred to as a 'touch-hole'. There are two trunnions or basal lugs for attachment to a block or stock that are oval in cross-section. The trunnions sat in the top of the cheeks of the gun carriage and enabled the piece to be elevated. The muzzle does not flare as in some earlier examples, but remains narrow and cylindrical. The decoration of this toy cannon is quite simplistic, and unlike examples in Forsyth and Egan (2005, pp81-84) the cascabel has no ridges until after the basal lugs. It measures 44.2 mm long, 17.8 mm wide at basal lugs, 9.5 mm maximum thickness and weighs 12.9 grams.
This example is similar to naval guns of the later nineteenth century. Originally it would probably have been mounted on either a gun carriage or wheels. There is a large degree of damage to the muzzle, probably due to an explosion when it was fairly new and it seems that there is a shaft of iron or perhaps a canon ball still within the canon's barrel. Many of these cannons were fired and are often found with exploded barrels from misfires. For similar examples on the PAS database, see: SUSS-494CB2, LIN-8FE5B6, LANCUM-440420, and IOW-8B08B7. The gun probably dates sometime between c. 1750 and 1900 AD, but probably last half of the nineteenth century based upon its design.
Class: Canon
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: MODERN
Date from: Circa AD 1700
Date to: Circa AD 1900
Quantity: 1
Length: 44.2 mm
Width: 17.8 mm
Thickness: 9.5 mm
Weight: 12.9 g
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 1st June 2012
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Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Complete
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.