Hunting Knife Combined with Wheellock Pistol

Etcher Ambrosius Gemlich German

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 375

In the sixteenth century, wheellock pistols sometimes were combined with swords, knives, axes, maces, spears, and even crossbows, which could be used in the event the pistol misfired. Usually clumsy and impractical, combined weapons were nevertheless highly prized curiosities. On this example, the heavy, cleaverlike blade is etched with a calendar and the decorator's name.

Hunting Knife Combined with Wheellock Pistol, Ambrosius Gemlich (German, Munich and Landshut, active ca. 1520–50), Steel, gold, staghorn, bronze, German, Munich

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