Wheellock Pistol, French Royal Arms Collection, inv. no. 217

Cuirassiers (heavy cavalry) usually were armed with a sword and two or more wheellock pistols such as this one. The associated reinforcing breastplate also in the Metropolitan Museum's collection (acc. no. 14.25.867) was intended to be worn on top of the breastplate of a cuirassier armor in order to make it bulletproof. Bulletproof reinforcing pieces were relatively heavy––this breastplate alone weighs 14 pounds 11 ounces––which is why they were made to be removable when not in use.

The symbols deeply engraved on the silvered steel surface of the breastplate and on the barrel and lockplate of this pistol include a pentagram, the letter F, and a coronet encircling a pair of crossed palm branches. These are the personal emblems of the Spanish nobleman Don Gómez Suárez de Figueroa Y Córdova, duke of Feria (1587–1634), a prominent military commander in the service of King Philip III. From 1618 to 1625 and again from 1631 to 1633, he held the prestigious post of governor of the duchy of Milan, then a Spanish territory. It was probably during this period that the duke of Feria commissioned this pistol (one of a pair) and the armor, now in the Royal Armory in Turin, Italy, to which this reinforcing breastplate originally belonged.