Puffer (wheellock pistol)

The German puffer refers to a type of pistol with a wheel-lock, which has a butt broken at an angle and a large round head. This type of weapon, mounted at the saddle in a leather holster, was used in the 16th century by mounted troops. The featured piece is similar to the collection of 350 pistols found in Rüstkammer in Dresden. These pistols feature a dark coating of the barrel and breech (hence the term 'schwarze puffer' - black puffers) and a embossed pattern decorating the butt and gun carriage. The butt pommels of the Dresden pistols bore the coat of arms of Saxony or a representation of a knight in a helmet on a badge, which has not been preserved on the object from Szczecin. These pistols were part of the equipment of the Saxon Elector's mounted guards who accompanied the ruler on his journeys (the so-called Reisigen Hofgesinde). The barrels of these guns were signed in various ways, but the markings on the Szczecin puffer, with the letters H and R, between which a cartouche depicting an ascending lion holding an arrow is placed, are also found on several Dresden items. Gernot Klatte, in the catalogue of the "Churfürstliche Gauardie exhibition. Die sächsichen Kurfürsten und ihre Leibgarden im Zeitalter der Reformation", held at the Dresden Rüstkammer, links the initials: HR to the gunsmith Hans Rubens, yet providing no grounds for this hypothesis. The site of this weapon's manufacture is inconsistently described in the literature. Some studies link the punch to the German or Saxon territories, while a dictionary of gunsmiths by Eugène Herr, points to a maker active in Nuremberg (Bavaria) between 1588 and 1591. Justyna Bądkowska