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The noted maker’s mark “FP” engraved on the lock-plate leads the gun to be strongly attributed to noted Parisian gunmaker Francois Poumerol. It is well-known that Poumerol made firearms presented to Louis XIII. He began his career c. 1590 in the
era of matchlocks, wheellocks, and snaphances. A sporting gun and pistol presented by Poumerol to the king in 1631 was accompanied by a pamphlet and poem entitled “Quatrains au Roi” in which the gunmaker instructed the king on “the means of recognizing the goodness and vice of all kind of firearms and preserving them in their luster and goodness” and notably discussed wheellocks and also expressed his view that the snaphance was superior to the new flintlocks then gaining in popularity. He was writing seeking official royal patronage and indeed became a gunmaker to Louis XIII’s troublesome brother, the Duke of Orleans. During Louis XIII’s reign, wheellocks were particularly popular in France, but despite Poumerol’s claims, the flintlock quickly gained popularity and became the standard for European arms into the 19th century, largely replacing all earlier lock mechanisms.
Additional noteworthy firearms attributed to Poumerol are contained within the Musee de l’Armee which contains a wheellock pistol and two wheellock arqubuses, (05010, 1000, and 2018.0.209). These are all elegant and include some similar attributes to the current piece but are ornamented to lesser degrees. Two of these have “FP” signatures in the same location on the locks as the current gun. Notably, in basic form, the present wheellock also has similarities to the significantly plainer wheellock, no.
5 from the Cabinet d’Armes, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (603-1864) which
is noted as fairly small and possibly made for Louis XIII as a boy whereas this example is full-sized as would be appropriate for the king as he approached the age of twenty and is elaborately embellished with extraordinary metalwork from muzzle to butt. Additional examples by Poumerol are found in the Royal Armouries (XII.1263-4), the Danish Royal Collection at Rosenborg Castle (7-137.147), The Odescalchi Collection
in Rome (49-50), The Wallace Collection (A 1177), and the Museo Stibbert in Florence (3327).
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