|
Slamfire has a good point about economics, but in the heyday of the wheel lock, they were fairly common, since they had advantages over the matchlock. Today's museums have few of the common guns of any type from before the late 18th century; they were not saved just because they were common, plain guns without decoration. The fancy, engraved and gold inlaid guns made for royalty were carefully preserved; the guns used by the hundreds by ordinary soldiers were destroyed in battle or scrapped when they became obsolete.
It seems to me that that rounded area is pretty characteristic of a wheel lock, and there are a number of pictures of wheel locks of the mid to late 1600's that look almost exactly like that.
As to what the soldier is doing, I am not sure he is doing anything; he has the look of a man who has just been through a firefight and is sitting there trying to get a few minutes rest.
Jim
|