Rec'd fol fm HH auctions in Germany regarding the pair of bronze falconets. These are unsettled areas as far as I am concerned:
1. I had specifically asked them to check the breech area with magnets to find the steel chaplets which should be there as part of the pre-solid-casting process where these ferrous metal pieces were necessary to support the wooden core used to form the bore of the gun. I use the presence of the chaplets as an indication of authenticity for any bronze cannon made before about 1760, although the process transition date varies with country and founder. Since these guns, if actually cast in the 16th C., should have ferrous metal embedded in the breech, I'm at a loss as to its absence. All I can think is that Mr. Weis really didn't have a strong enough magnet, but usually these chaplets come though to the surface and can be seen visually, or are beneath a very thin bronze plug put there for cosmetic purposes, and almost any magnet will find them. An explanation which no one in Germany will like would be that Napoleon's policy execution was successful and all six cannons were melted down. Later two reproductions were cast in memory of the real ones, but since no founder still practiced the old method using chaplets, the repros were made using the "cast solid then bored" method. Go figure, I hope for the sake of the successful bidder that someone finds those chaplets.
2. Maker: The most complete work available on Gunfounders (names etc.) is Kennard, GUNFOUNDING AND GUNFOUNDERS, Arms and Armour Press, New York, 1986. Of hundreds of gunfounders listed, going back to the 15th C. or so, there is no entry that I could find for "Wetzler" so this "attributed to the bell-founder Wetzler of Mühlhausen" will need some further explanation for the discriminating patron.
3. Cannons which were supposedly buried then excavated later always set off alarm bells with me, as those stories almost always prove false.
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Thank you for your interest in our upcoming auction. Our catalogues will be online next week, where you will have access to an extensive description, measurements, many photos, etc. If any questions remain after reading our catalogue text, or you would like additional to those already presented in the catalogue, please feel free to contact me anytime.
To satisfy your curiosity I have already attached the full catalogue text.
I have also tested the breech region with a magnet, but I could not find any iron pieces embedded. However the magnet I used was not very strong, so it would probably not have penetrated too far below the surface.
Best regards,
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An exceptional pair of Alsatian bronze Falkonett cannon, of six cast for the City of Mühlhausen, attributed to the bell-founder Wetzler of Mühlhausen, dated 1554
Of 5.7 cm bore, each finely cast in relief in the German taste, with flared muzzle, roped astragals heightened with prominent bands of acanthus at both ends of the chase and at the base of the first reinforce, a fillet and ogee at the head of the first reinforce, the base-ring formed as a double fillet, a pair of trunnions and a pair of dolphin handles at the second reinforce, flat cascable with a third dolphin handle en suite, the first reinforce cast with a pair of stippled shields each charged with the arms of Mühlhausen supported by the double-eagle of The Holy Roman Empire, all on a stippled field, a raised stippled scroll cast with the date “1554” below, and one stamped below the scroll in miniscules “E I” over “D Z”.
Wt. (each approximately): 150 KG. - L. (to base-ring): 113.3 cm – L. (overall): 122.2 cm
Provenance:
The City Arsenal, Reichstadt Mülhausen.
Transferred in the years immediately following the French Revolution to the Franciscan monastery in the Upper quarter of the city.
In 1811 the set of six cannon were to be melted by order of The Emperor Napoleon; four were subsequently surrendered and destroyed, the surviving pair remained hidden until the fall of the Empire. They were later taken into ceremonial service by the Mulhouse armed corps of sapeurs-pompiers (400-500 strong) commanded by M. Alfred Koechlin-Schwartz (1829-95, a prominent member of the well-recorded family of Alsatian industrialists, variously Mayor of Mulhouse and député for the région Nord, 1888-9).
To escape seizure by the invading German army in 1870, the surviving pair, as symbols of French military resistance, was buried, apparently by the order of Koechlin-Schwartz, and according to him in the Medieval city irrigation system (Stadtbuechlein), near to the Werkhof (city maintenance depot), adjacent to the quarters of the sapeurs-pompiers on the rue des Maréchaux.
Literature:
MEININGER, Ernest, Deux Vieux Canons Mulhousiens, Mulhouse, 1906, including a reproduced photograph taken prior to the burial of the cannon in 1870. Among his numerous official titles as an historian Ernest Meininger held the post of Président du Comité d’Administration du Musée Historique de Mulhouse. His research of the city archives revealed the record of the City Councils’ commissioning of the bell-founder Wetzler.
In 1554 the Alsatian city of Mühlhausen prospered as a Free republic (Reichstadt) ruled by an elected Council of twelve and existing as an independent enclave within The Sundgau, a Principality of The Holy Roman Empire. The city had extended its existing alliance with the Swiss Kantons in 1515 and the city remained an associate of the Swiss Confederation until 1798, when it acceded to France. Under the protection of the Confederation Mühlhausen survived the mid-16th century climate of turmoil in the region, principally The Habsburg-Valois War of 1551-59 and The Second Margrave War of 1552-55. The former conflict involved the French annexation and occupation of the cities of Metz, Toul and Verdun in 1552 and the defeat of the army of The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Renty in 1554. In this period of military hostility Wetzler’s commission from the City Council of Mühlhausen to cast six Falkonett cannon would have been a natural consequence of a requirement to reinforce the city defences, probably for a specific strategic position such as a gate-tower.
A table giving the nomenclature of German ordnance relative to specifications in 1556 was included in the Kriegsbuch des Reinhart von Solms and is reproduced in ZU MONDFELD, Wolfram, BAYERLEIN, Anton & KLINGENBRUNN, Marietta, Schiffs-geschütze 1350-1870, vol. I, Herford 1988, p.156.
