Spanner for a Wheel Lock Gun (1600s): Art, History and Details

Spanner for a Wheel Lock Gun (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Early firearms required many different tools to operate. These tools did not have to remain purely practical but could be decorated and embellished. A spanner was integral to a wheel lock gun. The wheel lock works by spinning a spring-loaded steel wheel against a piece of pyrite to generate intense sparks, which ignite gunpowder in a pan, which flashes through a small touchhole to ignite the main charge in the firearm's barrel. The spanner was needed to turn the wheel and spring, readying the gun to be fired.

Object facts

• Title: Spanner for a Wheel Lock Gun
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel
• Dimensions: Overall: 16.5 x 2.5 cm (6 1/2 x 1 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2008.171

A detail from the museum

This spanner operated a wheel-lock mechanism that enabled a gun to fire.

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Marvin Shie

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.