Wheel-Lock Rifle (1618): Art, History and Details

Wheel-Lock Rifle (1618) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Made originally as a petronel pistol, this firearm seems to have been refitted with a new stock sometime during the 17th century to convert it into a rifle, most likely for a child's use.

Object facts

• Title: Wheel-Lock Rifle
• Date: 1618
• Culture: Germany, Bavaria (?), 17th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel, brass, walnut stock inlaid with bone, horn and ivory
• Dimensions: Overall: 77.5 cm (30 1/2 in.); Butt: 7 cm (2 3/4 in.); Barrel: 49.8 cm (19 5/8 in.); Bore: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1919.65

A detail from the museum

The artisan who made this rifle used brass, bone, horn, and ivory to create decorative elements like animals involved in the hunt, fruits, and other details. If you look beneath the gun, you will see a goose or duck and a vase of flowers near the trigger.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• American Art Association. Ancient Arms and Weapons and Accoutrements. 1919.
• 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.