Wheellock Firearms of the Royal Armouries

This exhibition catalogue highlights forty wheellock firearms from the Royal Armouries collection, representing a selection of some of the most highly decorated and finely formed examples of the art of the wheellock gunmakers in Europe.

The development of the wheellock mechanism in the early 16th century enabled firearms to be made that could be carried and held in one hand.

This mechanism demanded great skill from gunmakers. It was a complex ad expensive device in use for 200 years, and wealthy patrons had wheellocks fitted to some of the most elegant and highly decorated firearms of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Royal Armouries contains over 170 wheellock firearms and this exhibition highlights 40 of the very best to illustrate the earliest forms of the mechanism, the technical curiosities it caused and a representative selection of some of the most highly decorated and finely formed examples of the art of the wheellock gunmakers in Europe.