Model of an 8-Pounder Gun and Two Carriages

Entry

Model of an 8-pounder gun and two carriages.

The barrel is 35 cm long and has a 17 mm calibre and a breech ring; the button is flat at the back. Written inscriptions are engraved on the barrel, along with two crossed anchors and two palm branches. The first carriage is trapezoidal in plan, the cheeks, each with four steps and a semi-ellipsoidal cutaway below, are held together by the transom, the axletrees and a cross-beam in the middle, besides two bolts going through both cheeks. Breast piece and quoin are missing and also the elevation plateau, resting forward with hooks on one of the bolts and to the rear on the stool bed. The hind axletree is very broad and serves as a stool bed at the same time. The fore trucks are slightly larger than the hind trucks. The second carriage is composed of two parts. The upper part consists of the cheeks and transom, identical to the first carriage, but set on a base plank. The lower part consists of the axletrees joined by a base plank. The upper part is joined to the lower with a pivot forward and can turn to be set at different angles: both the upper and the lower part have a brass arc with holes at the rear, with which they can be set in pre-set positions. The movement of the upper part is smoothed by a small roller set in the base plank of the lower part. The small wooden trucks have an identical diameter.

Obreen mentions only one carriage ‘for long breeching’.¹ The second carriage, however, does not fit any other description, this being the only 8-pounder gun in the Navy Model Room. The barrel is one of a series with the same type of inscription. The monogram on the barrel refers to the Admiralty of Rotterdam (Maze), which, however, no longer existed in 1800.

Scale (on model) 1:6.