Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Cieszynka rifle circa 1610 and winged hussars



Salve,
a short post about a rather unusual subject:
AD 1610 wheel-lock gun with its particular gunlock plate adorned with a fight scene engraving showing winged hussar cavalry armed with lances and bows pursuing the pistol-armed Western style reiter cavalrymen.

The engraving is singed with an monogram HL.F and based on its origin and history is qualified as a Tscheshinke/Teschinke (Cieszynka) rifle (wheel lock ) made by one of the master craftsmen from the Silesian town of Cieszyn/Teschen, famous since the Middle Ages for their intricately made gun, rifles, pistols and combined weapons.
It was one of two guns made for the Polish monarch Sigismund III circa AD 1610 that then the the king made these guns his gift to his brother-in-law the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in Vienna, Austria, where it has been safely residing at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
The hussars are shown in their full panoply - lances, armor, the companion with a wing,  his retainer with a shield etc.

retainer with a shield

more winged armored hussars and a sabre armed retainer

perhaps an allegory of the Polish king attacking his Swedish cousin
The photo gallery at wiki commons.
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.
enjoy
ps
there is a fairly new book on the Cieszyn/Teschen gun making school .
Chicago Art Institute has some examples of the Teschen guns - eg this from 1650. or from 1630. The Higgins armory shows this one.

5 comments:

Dario T. W. said...

o Cieszynkach i susznikarstwie cieszynskim http://forum-bron.pl/viewtopic.php?t=121178&start=15
http://artarmsantik.com/pliki/temat.php?nazwa=CIESZYNKA
takze o rekonstrukcji http://www.beskidzka24.pl/artykul,cieszynka_ocalona_dla_pokolen,23629.html

Dario T. W. said...

Gun maker at work http://www.nuernberger-hausbuecher.de/75-Amb-2-317b-71-v/large

Dario T. W. said...

another period miniature http://www.nuernberger-hausbuecher.de/75-Amb-2-279-86-v

Kadrinazi said...

Fajne znalezisko - tak z punktu widzenia 'husarskiego' jak i 'rajtarskiego' :)

Dario T. W. said...

Dzieki! miejmy nadzieje, ze wiki commons nie jednym nas zaskoczy - nota bene rajtarow zostawiam Tobie - :)