TOY

A corroded and incomplete Post Medieval to early Modern cast copper alloy toy cannon, c. AD1700-1900.The canon appears to be solid cast, with two central trunnion bars (or basal lugs)and a cascabel,both of which are broken, and a complete cascabel button at the end. There are two thickened base rings from which the barrel tapers to thedomed cascabel and elongated cascabel button. The barrel has circumferential mouldings and a breech chamber with one visiblevent-holesometimes referred to as a 'touch-hole'.From the trunnions forward the barrel tapers slightly to the broken muzzle. Between the muzzle and the trunnions the barrel seems to be undecorated. The cannon is 45mm long, it is 5.4mm in diameter at the broken muzzel and 8mm in diameter at the main base ring. The cannon weighs 6.93 grams.The decoration of this toy cannon is quite simplistic.Thereare similar examples in Forsyth and Egan, 2005 Toys Trifles and Trinkets London: Museum of London pp82-84 The cannon dates from c1680-c1720 AD.

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. The canon is missing the end of its barrel andmany 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. Unusually, this canon appears to have been solid cast and would therefore not have been fired as in the above examples.