Cleveland Art Musuem Muzzleloaders

[MicahKautchick]

Went to the art museum and saw these. I believe most of the wheellocks were for hunting. There were some flintlock pistols and even a matchlock. I love the mother of pearl inlays and I think some of the patchboxes are made of bone? The ghost ring looking rear sight on the longest wheel lock is a neat idea too.

Does anyone have any info? Worth?

[Seth Isaacson]

On a lot of decorated wheellocks, most of the inlays and what not are staghorn (antler).

[mr. no gold]

Works of art!  Gorgeous, and a delight to see. Thank you for taking photos and sharing them here. Not all of us will ever get to Cleveland to see them in person.
Dick

[smart dog]

On a lot of decorated wheellocks, most of the inlays and what not are staghorn (antler).

Hi Seth,
I believe you are right about the larger inlays.  However, having experimented with this kind of decoration, I believe the thin curl scrollwork may be cow horn or possibly antler but they are made by shaving thin curls off the stock material.   

dave

[Seth Isaacson]

On a lot of decorated wheellocks, most of the inlays and what not are staghorn (antler).

Hi Seth,
I believe you are right about the larger inlays.  However, having experimented with this kind of decoration, I believe the thin curl scrollwork may be cow horn or possibly antler but they are made by shaving thin curls off the stock material.   

dave

That definitely could be the case Dave. You can tell on some examples that some of the material is not the same. Sometimes that's because of repairs/replacements, but in some cases it all looks to be untouched, and your explanation makes perfect sense to me. Some people assume it is all ivory, but I've more often seen ivory inlays as replacements or on the Victorian era decorated ones from the Spitzer shops and what not although some of the originals have ivory.

[smart dog]

Hi Seth,
Ivory was always in short supply and expensive.  For the longest time during the early Renaissance, France had a virtual monopoly on the ivory carving trade. Baldassarre Embriachi, originally from Genoa, realized that common cow bone was cheap, available, could be carved, and did not yellow like ivory.  He began a very successful business making boxes and accessories with carved bone decoration.  Carving and inlaying cow bone took off and quickly supplanted ivory in volume of trade. The German stock decorators used it extensively and much that is labeled as "staghorn" is really cow bone, although they used real staghorn as well.  Probably any of the bone like decoration that remains really white in color is cow bone.  I attached a photo of one of Embriachi's little bone decorated caskets.

dave

[Seth Isaacson]

That all makes a lot of sense to me, and I understood ivory to be rare for much of this period, particularly in places like the Germanic states. That casket is stunning!

[Arcturus]

The European craftsmanship on display in this thread is stunning. Thanks for posting. The Cleveland Art Museum is a real treasure and well worth the visit if anyone is in the NE Ohio area. I believe admission is still free except for special traveling exhibits.