Help in identification

[bluelake]

There are a couple types of cannon here in Korea (one type in North Korea and the other here in the South) I am trying to identify.  The year 1866 was a busy one for Koreans, as there were two incursions into the country; one was by a merchant ship, called the General Sherman, which was US-owned, British-leased, but mostly SE Asian-crewed and the other incursion was by the French.
 
The first were supposedly taken off the merchant ship General Sherman after it was destroyed by Koreans in 1866.  They are at a museum in Pyongyang, NK.

 

 
The second is what Koreans copied from captured French pieces from 1866 (cast in 1874).  Here is one of them at the Korean Army Museum:
 

 

 

 

 
 

[cannonmn]

Top two are insurance guns, most likely made by Cyrus Alger of Boston.

[bluelake]

Thanks! 
Any ideas about the French-design cannon?
 

[steelcharge]

Thanks for posting these! Cannons used in smaller, lesser known conflicts, especially in Asia are always interesting!
Any idea of the caliber of the American pieces?

The french inspired cannons have interested me also and If the carriage is original or copied from an original, I think they would have been copied from the french 12-pdr mountain howitzer, or the rifled "modéle 1859" mountain gun. They both have the same carriage type, very similar to the korean guns carriage (basically same carriage as a US mountain howitzer).  But because the barrel doesn't exactly look like either of these guns I'm not sure which one was captured and copied.

[cannonmn]

The french inspired cannons have interested me also and If the carriage is original or copied from an original, I think they would have been copied from the french 12-pdr mountain howitzer, or the rifled "modéle 1859" mountain gun. They both have the same carriage type, very similar to the korean guns carriage (basically same carriage as a US mountain howitzer). But because the barrel doesn't exactly look like either of these guns I'm not sure which one was captured and copied.

Agree with all that, and I'd add that I don't know of any French tube with that appearance. 

[bluelake]

From what I can tell, the "French-design" cannon is actually a hybrid design.  I don't think the Koreans made an exact copy of a French cannon, but made their own design styled after captured pieces.  I have heard that there were some captured 1866 cannon, but also there may have been other French cannon that were taken off a shipwreck in 1847.
 
The Koreans, after facing Western forces twice (1866 and 1871), wanted to upgrade their artillery from the ancient styles they had to that point.  So, the "Daewongun" (the regent of Korea and father of the king) ordered such cannons be developed; the result was the 1874 design.  The extant cannon came from a palace and also from an old fortress.  I believe the carriages may not be original (I could be wrong), but may be copies of the originals. 
 

[The Jeff]

I think the French inspired cannon might have been used for shooting around corners in urban warfare. 

[Cannoneer]

The second is what Koreans copied from captured French pieces from 1866 (cast in 1874).  Here is one of them at the Korean Army Museum:
 

Bluelake,
I know next to nothing about the history of bronze casting in Korea, but I find the amateurish quality of this piece kind of surprising, especially for that late a date. 

[steelcharge]

Bluelake,
I know next to nothing about the history of bronze casting in Korea, but I find the amateurish quality of this piece kind of surprising, especially for that late a date.

I agree, it looks quite bad quality casting, or atleast the bore is quite off center. From the few small Korean "beer mug" breechloaders I've seen, the casting quality is much better on those, which makes me wonder why this is so much lower quality.

[bluelake]

Koreans hadn't really done a lot of cannon casting for many years by the time these were made.  The regent put a lot of pressure on the craftsmen to produce cannon after the US invasion in 1871, so I imagine those things happen when you're rushed.  It's interesting to note that the 1874 cannons were the last of the muzzleloading type made in Korea (with the exception of reproductions made a century later).