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Ball mould: M.8-X

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Titles

Ball mould

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Bullet mould, marked '20'. Used to cast a lead ball for, most likely, a muzzle loading rifle.

Acquisition and important dates

by Unknown

Dating

18th Century-19th Century
Circa 1775 - 1825

Note

It was previously believed that this mould was used to make shot for a pistol, but the size of this mould makes it more likely that it was used to cast small lead balls for use in a muzzle loading rifle. It was used by holding the handles together and pouring molten lead into the little cup. The lead solidified forming the ball of the right size for the gun it was made for. The little sprue of lead left after casting was cut off using the cutters below the mould.

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: 20
  • Type: Mark

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.8-X
Primary reference Number: 19698
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 18 December 2023 Last processed: Monday 18 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Ball mould" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/19698 Accessed: 2024-11-23 04:17:47

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/19698 |title=Ball mould |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-23 04:17:47|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-19698

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