On my recent trip to
Vienna I got to see some great museums. One of my favorites was the collection of Hapsburg arms and armor at the Neue Berg. I'm working on an article about this place, which has one of the greatest collections of medieval arms and armor anywhere.
Here's one interesting item: a combination halberd and double-barreled rifle made in Germany c.1580. You can see it at the top of a case of other early firearms.
Here's a closeup. As you can see it has two wheellocks, firing mechanisms that are wound up and then released by the pull of a trigger. Given the ornamentation on the halberd, I'm thinking this was intended more for show as a curio than as an actual weapon. A lot of these combination weapons have survived from the Middle Ages and Renaissance but I've never read an account of one actually being used. They all tend to be similarly ornamental, which may explain why so many have survived.
Might not have been practical in practice either.
ReplyDeleteIt does look a bit unwieldy, doesn't it? The trigger is too close to the end so you wouldn't be able to hold the halberd properly.
DeleteI'm not big on weapons, but your photos are impressive. When my husband emigrated to the US from Germany he brought a collection of antique weapons--swords and daggers (some from the 30-year war) that he found in caves and crawl spaces in Bavaria (where he grew up). He also had WWII field marshal daggers and medals with the Iron cross on them. He was a teenager and neither he nor his mom spoke English when they arrived in New York. Sadly, a customs official confiscated the weapons as "contraband" and my husband never saw his treasures again, but he still talks about them to this day.
ReplyDeleteThat's horrible! You could probably trace them. There must be a record of the seizure at the customs office. I suppose those weapons are buried in some government warehouse.
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