Combination Ax-Pistol of Grand Duke Ferdinand I de' Medici (1549-1609) ca. 1580 German The invention of the wheel lock in the early sixteenth century established a fairly reliable, if complex and expensive, firearms ignition system that engendered the rapid development of pistols and long arms for both warfare and the hunt. By the middle of the century a new genre of weapon developed, combining a wheel-lock pistol and a conventional sword, dagger, ax, or mace. This would seem to imply a basic insecurity on the part of the owner, suggesting that if his shot missed he could rely on the weapon's second function as a backup. In reality, however, combination weapons of this sort appealed to the wealthy nobleman as elaborate mechanical curiosities, and they are found in abundance in the princely armories and Renaissance Kunst- und Wunderkammern.This ax-pistol, like most recorded examples, is of German manufacture and follows conventional all-steel construction in which the hollow shaft of th