Balthasar Hacker’s breaking-and-entering multitool, circa 1595 AD
*What a very strange verbal coincidence that a device like this should be built by someone named “Hacker.”
Google translation from German website:
The iron box, decorated with the figures of Fortuna and Lucretia, features sliding lids and an intermediate shelf and contains fourteen small tools. On one side are three rasps, a pincer, a jigsaw, a knife, and a parting tool; on the other side are a wrench, four files, a square-pointed drill bit, and a pilot drill. This universal tool is a precursor to the modern pocketknife. In the inventory of the Kunstkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities) from 1595, this instrument is listed in connection with an “iron piercer or underleaf tool” made by Balthasar Hacker for Elector Christian I, and thus belonged to the category of “breaking tools.” These are devices used for breaking in or out.
After 1619, it was moved to the armory and is documented in the Mathematical-Physical Salon in 1828, from where it was transferred to the Dresden Historical Museum (Armory) in 1877. This universal tool is related to other prying tools, probably manufactured by Balthasar Hacker, see inventory numbers P 0222, P 0227, P 0228.
https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/283563