Matchlock Musket

This musket from the museum's Herman P. Dean Firearms Collection is not only a splendid example of fine craftsmanship, but also represents a major technical innovation of early gunmaking. It is intricately decorated with a mother-of-pearl floral design with stylized faces, two figures supporting caricaturized masks, and a knight or hunter on horseback with a sword and preceded by two dogs. The octagonal, tapered barrel is delicately incised on the top, and the tiller, or trigger, beneath the stock has an openwork floral design.