Wheel-Lock Carbine from the Bodyguard of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Archbishop of Salzburg (ruled 1587-1612)

c. 1590–1600

Wheel-Lock Carbine from the Bodyguard of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Archbishop of Salzburg (ruled 1587-1612), c. 1590–1600. Georg Zellner (Zell am Wallersee, active late 1500s–early 1600s). Steel, wood (walnut) inlaid with staghorn; The Cleveland Museum of Art, On Loan from the Collection of Justin Kohn and Family 55.2000 At the beginning of the 1500s the handfire weapon began to change the face of European warfare. a new type of ignition system was invented: the wheel-lock, the first self-igniting mechanism for guns. This new technology was particularly attractive to rich nobleman who commissioned such guns for hunting. Gunmakers lavished all form of embellishment on these firearms: chiseling, engraving, and gilding of the metal parts as well as the use of rare woods for the stock and inlays of horn, bone, and ivory. Raitenau had a fierce dispute with his neighbor Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria; he was eventually captured and imprisoned for life.