Art Institute of Chicago
Wheellock-Matchlock Musket
Dutch, possibly GermanLinkedCulture matchlcp-57a0b2641f61
- Date
- c. 1600-c. 1630
- Medium
- Steel, iron, brass, gilding, walnut, mother-of-pearl, staghorn, leather, and pyrite
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Department
- Applied Arts of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 237129
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
Unlike most heavy muskets, the weapon of the common soldier, this elaborate example is filled with gilt brass and mother-of-pearl inlay. Even the firing mechanism makes use of the more expensive wheellock rather than just a simple matchlock. It was formerly kept in the gun room of Castle Tetschen (Děčín), today in the Czech Republic, together with a few others by the same workshop. As a group, they were used by the barons Thun und Hohenstein for the sport of target shooting; courtly competitions developed in emulation of civic shooting matches held by guilds and militias to practice their military skills.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Pauline Seipp Armstrong and George F. Harding Collection endowment funds
- Provenance
- Fürst Thun-Hohenstein, Schloss Tetschen (present-day Děčín, Czechia), possibly by 1628; sold, Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, Sept. 2, 1933, lot 966. William Goodwin Renwick, by 1972; sold, Sotheby’s, London, Nov. 21, 1972, lot 19, to Karsten Klinbeil, Berlin; sold, Pierre Berge and Hermann Historica, Brussels, Dec. 13, 2011, lot 148, to Andrew Lumley, London [on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago since 2017]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2024.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300036926
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