TOY

An incomplete cast copper-alloy musket (gun) found with its ramrod within the barrel (c. 1600-c. 1640). Externally, the barrel is 40.0mm long and octagonally facetted with the two side facets wider than the others. Internally, the barrel is cylindrical and with a depth of 38.0mm and a diameter of 5.5mm. The muzzle is split at one side and this split may have occurred when it was fired. On each of the top three facets, near the butt, there is a curving line of stamped dots. On one side facet, close to the butt, there is a small sub-rectangular moulding which is in front of small conically drilled gunpowder pan (touch hole). Below the pan, on the underside, there are the remains of a trigger guard. The copper-alloy ramrod is circular in cross-section and has a length of 41.5mm. Each collar has a diameter of about 6.0mm and the baluster has a diameter of 4.2mm. Beneath the lower collar the diameter is 4.1mm and at the opposite end the diameter is 3.1mm. This end appears to be complete. They are based on the match-lock 'petronels' of the 16th and 17th centuries, and as can be seen from this example with gunpowder pan, hollow barrel and ramrod were fully working models. The moulding in front of the pan represented the mechanism which automatically levered a match into the powder, but on these toys the match would simply have been touched into the pan by hand. Examples are known as early as the late 16th century, but since neither the later wheel-lock nor flint-lock could be made in a working miniature form, they may have continued in popularity long after the full-size match-lock became obsolete.
Both elements are corroded and the barrel has a irregular hole at one side, The gun has traces of a shiny mid-green patina and the breaks are old.
Length: 55.7mm; length with ramrod fitted: 66.5mm; width: 15.1mm; thickness; 7.6mm. Weight: 13.11g.
This gun is possibly an Egan and Forsyth's Type 2 dated 1600-1640 (Egan and Forsyth, 2005, Toys, Trifles and Trinkets, Museum of London, page 92).