Miquelet lock

As both de Hita and Cervantes allude to pistols, pedrenales, and escopetas being in use that were not wheellocks, it is reasonable to suggest some form of flint-against-steel gunlock was in use by the late 16th century.

Some listings used the term "llaves de chispa" (meaning spark locks, applied to all manner of flintlocks, miquelets included).

[9] The miquelet lock, with its combined battery and pan cover was the final innovative link that made the "true" flintlock mechanism possible.

[10] The features most associated with the miquelet are the horizontal sears, acting through the lockplate, coupled with the external mainspring and the top jaw screw ring.

Experts agree that the use of horizontally acting sears is the true defining feature because some variations of the miquelet do not have the external mainspring and/or the large top jaw screw ring.

[11] Another seemingly ubiquitous feature of the Spanish miquelets was the striated battery face, or put another way, vertically grooved frizzen.

However, the practice of using both the detachable and integral grooved face was continued by many Spanish provincial gunsmiths as well as by North African and Ottoman lockmakers.

Indigenous variations of the patilla had names such as the "a la de invenciõn", later known as the "alla romana" or "romanlock" or simply, the "Italian."

Serious writers and collectors in Europe eschew this term and use more precise, chronologically and geographically pertinent terminology, such as "alla borbona" for the Neapolitan (Naples) variety of external-mainspring lock due to its association with the Bourbons and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

A similar projection on the opposite side of the cock engaged the underside of the full-cock sear, which could be round, flat, or square.

[15] The "agujeta" lock or "la llave de transición", a contemporary of the patilla, was produced in Ripoll, a gun-making center in Catalonia.

"[18] The miquelet may have come to the attention of arms makers in Istanbul via long-established trade routes from Italian city-states through the port of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) to provinces on the Balkan Peninsula.

[20] A percussion cap lock mechanism styled on the patilla and romanlock pattern miquelets was used on pistols and sporting guns right up to the advent of the cartridge firearm.

Sculpturing of the hammer in the form of wildlife (lions, dogs, mythical beasts, or fish) was a common practice on these percussion miquelet locks.

With the classic Spanish patilla style miquelet lock, the mainspring pushes up on the heel of the hammer and both sears engaged the toe of the foot.
With the Italian or Roman style miquelet lock, the mainspring pushes down on the toe of the hammer and the sears engaged the hammer on both the toe and heel.
Patilla style miquelet lock inlaid with gold and silver, late 1600s
Chiselled and pierced patilla style miquelet lock
Spanish miquelet grooved battery face
Llave a la moda style miquelet lock by Alonzo Martinez, circa 1730, showing location of the sears and punzón
North African moukhala musket showing agujeta lock characteristics
Castilian agujeta on a long gun depicted in a Puga painting circa 1636
An exquisite Caucasia pistol clearly showing the fastening bridge of the miquelet lock circa 1800
Spanish percussion miquelet lock