ABSTRACT
This chapter examines guns as historical symbolic objects and tangible artefacts. Applying a biographical method, the chapter outlines how cannons have shifted in value, from functional weapons to revered historical artefacts suitable for different collectors, to attractive museum objects, illustrating their complex afterlives. The chapter's starting point is a number of salvage actions that have been carried out on four renowned Swedish warships. Following from there, the discussion continues by emphasising the evolving relationships, and horizons of discovery, that over time have operated as rescuing drives. However, as will be shown, sometimes the heritagisation process also works backward, meaning that the formerly acknowledged value of the cherished guns can also be retrieved.
