1099
A LATE 15TH CENTURY WROUGHT IRON 'VERSO' CANNON WITH POSSIBLE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION.
A LATE 15TH CENTURY WROUGHT IRON 'VERSO' CANNON WITH POSSIBLE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION. The gun with a flaring muzzle on a long narrow barrel with swivel yoke near the center and open breech-loading frame at the breech, and long tiller handle (in excavated condition with significant oxidation and scale). Overall lg. 78 in. Footnotes: Provenance Recovered by Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo, from the Hania River, Hispaniola, in the 1960s. The history of the gun as described by Rodney Hilton Brown indicates that on June 29, 1502, Christopher Columbus arrived at Santo Domingo and requested to enter the harbor to shelter due to an approaching storm. The Governor of Hispaniola, Nicolas de Ovando, denied his request and Columbus then sailed west into the Hania River. To lighten the ship in order to enable the vessel to sail further up the river, Columbus ordered several cannon and anchors to be thrown overboard. In the 1960s Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo discovered this and five other cannon in the Hania River and took them to his home in Key Biscayne, Florida, where they remained for many years. After his death, the cannon were sent to a junk yard but they were soon recovered by a local antique dealer who sold them over a period of about ten years (Rodney Hilton Brown, Treasures of the Caribbean (Fairhaven, MA: The War Museum Press, 2023), pp. 205-206). Literature Cannon is illustrated and described in Rodney Hilton Brown, Treasures of the Caribbean (Fairhaven, MA: The War Museum Press, 2023), pp. 205-206. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing
A LATE 15TH CENTURY WROUGHT IRON 'VERSO' CANNON WITH POSSIBLE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION. The gun with a flaring muzzle on a long narrow barrel with swivel yoke near the center and open breech-loading frame at the breech, and long tiller handle (in excavated condition with significant oxidation and scale). Overall lg. 78 in. Footnotes: Provenance Recovered by Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo, from the Hania River, Hispaniola, in the 1960s. The history of the gun as described by Rodney Hilton Brown indicates that on June 29, 1502, Christopher Columbus arrived at Santo Domingo and requested to enter the harbor to shelter due to an approaching storm. The Governor of Hispaniola, Nicolas de Ovando, denied his request and Columbus then sailed west into the Hania River. To lighten the ship in order to enable the vessel to sail further up the river, Columbus ordered several cannon and anchors to be thrown overboard. In the 1960s Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo discovered this and five other cannon in the Hania River and took them to his home in Key Biscayne, Florida, where they remained for many years. After his death, the cannon were sent to a junk yard but they were soon recovered by a local antique dealer who sold them over a period of about ten years (Rodney Hilton Brown, Treasures of the Caribbean (Fairhaven, MA: The War Museum Press, 2023), pp. 205-206). Literature Cannon is illustrated and described in Rodney Hilton Brown, Treasures of the Caribbean (Fairhaven, MA: The War Museum Press, 2023), pp. 205-206. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing
Historic Arms & Militaria: Five Centuries of Spani
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