The Special Tibetan/Indian Matchlock Pan Cover and the Qing Dynasty Royal Matchlock Pan Cover
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Intro
This topic is what I wanted to talk about a few months ago but at that moment I hadn't decided how to start to talk about it. So I didn’t make this video/article until today. But anyway, in this video/article I’m going to share with you what I learnt about this traditional and unique matchlock pan cover.
The Existing Pan Cover
Before I saw the pan cover, I always had a question, why there are many existing Indian and Tibetan style matchlocks that seemingly didn’t have the priming cover on the pan because I didn’t see the pan had any holes in order to set an axle of the cover. So I just wondered how the ancient people ensured the priming powder was able to be kept in the pan safely under this situation. Plus, we know that the slow-match ash also could probably drop on the priming powder if the pan didn’t have the cover and it may result in the gun going off accidentally.
However when I saw this leather cover in some matchlock firearm collections, I finally knew that in fact the ancient people probably very clearly knew the potential risk and at the same time, they also had the corresponding solutions and it was a very simple design. So this extra pan cover might be one of the solutions.
According to the collection's pictures, because there are 2 hooks under the pan and tail of the barrel, the cover can be fixed and can cover the whole of the barrel tail and pan. So it can not only protect the priming powder ignited accidentally by the slow-match ash but also prevent the priming powder from being blown out by the wind.
Therefore I infer that if the shooter wants to fire, he will need to just take off the right side of the cover from the right hook. So the cover should still be on the gun but at the same time, the gun can be ready to fire.
The Pan Cover in the Royal Paintings
If you also learn about some Chinese matchlock, I think you will remember there are some royal matchlocks of the Qing dynasty, which were also the Tibetan style. So whether these royal matchlocks had a similar pan cover as well? Now I think we can figure out this question from 2 royal paintings in the Forbidden City.
https://minghuaji.dpm.org.cn/paint/appreciate?id=7ec7fe9bd60d4b8c96a95fa972f453d9
Both paintings described the royal hunt in the years that the Qianlong Emperor was on the throne. So this royal hunt was holded for the Qianlong Emperor in the paintings. The first time I saw the paintings. I wonder if the painter made a very clear mistake that he didn’t draw the pan of the matchlock. Especially since both were very detailed paintings, this mistake was just more obvious. But now I finally changed my mind. In other words, the existing pan cover collections probably have given my answer. The reason why the painter didn’t draw the pan, because at both moments, the first moment the people were moving on horseback and the matchlock gun was carried by a man and the second moment Qianlong emperor was putting the slow-match and was getting ready to shoot. Therefore the cover was still on the pan and finally the painter recorded the moments with his pen. So this might not be a mistake but might be a more detailed and realistic painting.
https://minghuaji.dpm.org.cn/paint/appreciate?id=2e98d49bb80349ef9d3ff2fc8727f449
So this is today’s video/article and thank you for watching. Hope you can like this video/article. Have a good day. See you next time. Bye!
reference:
https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/tibetan-matchlock-musket
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/china-1929--2251868555327315/
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/755339
https://www.mandarinmansion.com/glossary/me-mda
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20879
https://m-minghuaji.dpm.org.cn/paint/appreciate?id=2e98d49bb80349ef9d3ff2fc8727f449，https://m-minghuaji.dpm.org.cn/paint/appreciate?id=7ec7fe9bd60d4b8c96a95fa972f453d9
https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-49471，
https://collection.canterburymuseum.com/objects/72008/long-barrelled-matchlock-rifle
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