Shell inlay on weaponry

Jonathan James Tavares

Dutch (probably), Matchlock Musket for Target Shooting for the Court of Christian II, Elector of Saxony, 1600-1610. Steel, brass, walnut, staghorn, and mother-of-pearl. 39 inches (barrel); caliber .64. The Art Institute of Chicao, George F. Harding Collection, 1982.2264. Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy, Civic Guardsmen of District V from the Company of Captain Matthijs Willemsz. Raephorst and Lieutenant Hendrick Lauwrensz., 1630. Amsterdam Museum, SA 7312. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Konrad Mendel and Matthäus Landauer, Mendel II, from the "Hausbücher der Nürnberger Zwölfbrüderstiftungen" (Housebooks of Nuremberg or The Twelve Brethren Books), Stadtbibliothek im Bildungscampus Nürnberg, Amb. 317b.2°, Folio 32 recto. Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal

Franco-German; Possibly Alsace; Embellishment probably by Workshop of Frédéric Spitzer (Austrian, active 1815-1890) Paris, Wheellock gun, 1605-1615. Steel, fruitwood, gilding, horn, and ivory. 38 1/2 inches (barrel); caliber .66. The Art Institute of Chicao, George F. Harding Collection, 1982.2847. Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

Germany, Powder Flask, 1610-1640. Walnut, mother-of-pearl, and iron, with gilding. (flask): 9 1/2 × 4 1/4 × 1 3/4 inches. The Art Institute of Chicao, George F. Harding Collection, 1982.2272. Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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Jonathan Tavares is Amy and Paul Carbone Curator in the Applied Arts of Europe department at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is an early modern decorative arts, arms, and armor scholar with a PhD from the Bard Graduate Center.  He was responsible for curating the arms and armor galleries, part of the Deering Family Galleries of Medieval and Renaissance Art that opened in 2017. His purview includes Medieval to Baroque applied arts, and has published numerous articles on 16th and 17th-century arms, armor, its manufacture, and connection to print culture.