Hans Paumgartner
Austrian, Graz, active 1556-1582
Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria
INV-1064
Hans Paumgartner
Austrian, Graz, active 1556-15821571
Wheellock Rifle of Archduke Charles of Styria
Hans Paumgartner Austrian, Graz, active 1556-1582 →firearm-long gunarms
Date
1571
Medium
Steel, fruitwood, and staghorn
Dimensions
H.: 112.1 cm (44 1/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
George F. Harding Collection
This rifle, a masterpiece of stock inlay, may have been given as a wedding present to Archduke Charles of Styria (eastern Austria), the youngest son of Emperor Ferdinand I. The engraving on the butt end of the stock combines Charles’s Habsburg coat of arms with that of his wife, the Duchess Maria of Bavaria; the couple was married in 1571, the year the gun was made.
Curiously the lock is mounted on the left side, a rare feature suggesting that Charles was left-eye dominant, or that he aimed with his left eye.