I'm trying to complete this table. In the lower left corner under column 1 is the word "unknown" where the correct nomenclature or model name of a small French swivel cannon should appear. There are pictures of the small swivel cannon or gun at the links. All four of the guns shown are made of bronze; the one marked "4" has never been polished so of course is much darker in color.
This particular model of swivel gun does not show up too often. It is only the second one I've seen. The first one was mounted on a steel field carriage, and was owned by my late friend and fellow cannon collector Val Forgett. He kept it at his warehouse in WV, then sold it at the Baltimore Gun Show in about 1999. His example was configured with a typical "knob" type cascabel vice the two-holed flange "item 1" has in the photos. His also had more markings, namely a French maker's name beginning with "C" and the location, "Paris" as I recall. I can't find my notes, but the maker's name may have been "Chobert," a known 19th C. founder of bronze cannons who worked in Paris.
The documentation on the whole range of French naval swivel guns is poor. Two specific models, the M1786, and the Espingole (not shown in this grouping) are well-documented, and I've seen dozens of surviving specimens of either. Every secondary work I've seen which discusses French swivel guns has presented those two models as if they were the only French naval swivel gun types which ever existed. Obviously the surviving specimens of two other types prove otherwise.
Please let me know if you have any information on the item identified as "1" in the table and photos, or if you know of any surviving examples. I'd particularly like to track down the one Val Forgett sold so I could measure it and confirm its exact markings.
All 4 guns are bronze. Only the smallest "unknown" one has centerline trunnions, the rest have low trunnions.
Click on the small pic to get larger one.
