Toy Musket fragment. Cast toy gun fragment of curving form, apparently representing a straight ended butt or musket stock. A hollow breech with a possible pin hole vent in its surviving side, towards its end, suggests this toy could be fired. The external surface is moulded in relief with oak leaves over an arrangement of longitudinal lines perhaps representing a decorated stock. A curled element below, just before where the stock gives way to a straight barrel, may represent a trigger guard. From above this curl, an internal breech measures 21mm in (remaining) length and 8mm in width. The stock is also hollow, though this cavity is entirely separate from that of the breech.

A group of toy muskets from London represent muskets with fish tail butts, possibly a slightly earlier form than is represented here (Forsyth and Egan 2005, Toys, Trifles and Trinkets: Base-metal miniatures from London 1200 to 1800, pages 89-97), though the simpler and apparently more modern form was used for bespoke firearms from an early date, and for mass produced guns after 1650. The toy versions appear, however, to have operated in the same way, the provision of a pin hole vent being a feature they share with this example. This object was reported along with a fragment from another early toy gun.

Suggested date: Post-Medieval, 1650-1700.

Length: 53mm, Width (stock): 22.6mm, Thickness (breech wall): 2.3mm, Thickness (overall): 8.6mm, Weight: 20.35gms.