Tschinki (Wheel-Lock Hunting Rifle) (c. 1630–50): Art, History and Details

Tschinki (Wheel-Lock Hunting Rifle) (c. 1630–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This type of hunting gun owes its name to the town of Teschen in Silesia (now southern Poland) which, as early as 1580, was already associated with a particular type of gun. The precise date of the invention of the Tschinke is unknown, though a dated example of 1610 survives in the Imperial Armouries in Vienna.

Object facts

• Title: Tschinki (Wheel-Lock Hunting Rifle)
• Date: c. 1630–50
• Culture: Poland, Silesia, 17th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel with traces gilding; walnut stock inlaid with bone, stag horn, mother-of-pearl
• Dimensions: Overall: 122.9 cm (48 3/8 in.); Butt: 9.6 cm (3 3/4 in.); Barrel: 94.9 cm (37 3/8 in.); Bore: 1.3 cm (1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1782

A detail from the museum

At over four feet long, this rifle's scale is only outdone by the fine details of the gilding and inlaid precious materials. This weapon is known for the region in which it was made and popularized.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Helen Ives Gilchrist. Handbook of the Severance Collection of Arms and Armor. 2d ed., 1948.

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.