Wheel-Lock from a Hunting Rifle (c. 1660–1720): Art, History and Details

Wheel-Lock from a Hunting Rifle (c. 1660–1720) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Originally part of a deluxe weapon, the lock plate's entire surface is inlaid with an exquisite floral pattern in gold. Carefully chiseled, the fanciful hammer takes the form of an animal head crowned by a mass of foliage. The double eagle on the wheel plate suggests the weapon was made for a member of the Habsburg family.

Object facts

• Title: Wheel-Lock from a Hunting Rifle
• Date: c. 1660–1720
• Culture: Austria
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, inlaid with gold design of Habsburg eagle, pierced and chiseled
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.7 x 17.2 cm (12 1/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1546

A detail from the museum

Invented in the early 1500s, the wheel-lock was a new type of ignition system, the first to be self igniting.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. Vol. 4, 17th to 19th century and a few pieces of iron work. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], [1900-1915].
• 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.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

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.