Lot 434
A rare fire-gilt miniature cannon by Michael Mann, active in Augsburg and Nuremberg, 1st quarter of the 17th century
Works of Art, Antiquities & Ancient Art | A109kua | Live auction | 1190 Lots
Description
Conical barrel segmented by prominent bands, with a reinforced muzzle. Volute-shaped handles; the touch-hole cover is missing. Indistinct mark struck to the left of the touch-hole. All-metal carriage of fire-gilt sheet brass finely engraved with decorative tendrils. The fine iron fittings with scant traces of bluing. Small limber box with spring-locked lidded compartment. Finely worked spoke wheels with iron linchpins. Length of barrel 8 cm, overall length 10.6 cm. While the miniature caskets made by Michael Mann are encountered with some frequency in the premium art trade, the miniature weapons produced by him are considerably rarer and therefore little known. In addition to fully functional miniature wheellock weapons, his workshop also produced a small group of miniature cannons, of which only approximately 20 examples are known to survive worldwide, many of them in museum collections. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, for example, has a small group of three examples. See also: Weis, Robert, Die Miniaturwaffen des Michael Mann, in: Die Erzeugnisse von Conradt und Michel Mann und deren Werkstatt, Beiträge zur Tagung vom 16. und 17 Juni 2023, Schell Collection Graz, p. 70 f. The cannon offered here is illustrated in: Laue, Georg, Die Kunstkammer – Wunder kann man sammeln, Munich 2016, no. 32.Condition: II Questions about the lot?
