2 antique matchlocks
 

Hi, new here and have a decent collection of ethnographic arms. I have had these two antique matchlocks for a while, and I believe one is Tibetan and the other Afghan. The Tibetan one is clad in metal and the stock is leather wrapped, barrel is held on by leather ties. In addition it has a match case and leather sling with what appear to be ancient Chinese coins on it. The Afghan gun is rather plain, barrel held to the stock by iron rings. Both are somewhere in the .50cal range and are smoothbore. Any ideas on time period of these two?

Welcome to the forum.
It must help getting comments on your guns if you show some pictures - so please do so.

Hi br:

Seems as though you had a problem with attaching your pictures. Once you have selected your files in the pop-up window please remember to hit the "Upload Files" button in order to attach the pictures to your post.

Ian.

In case the little messages on the upload box slipped past you, there is a limit of 1280 pixels on the widest/longest side. I just set my widest side to 1279 in Photoshop "Save for Web", and have no problems, though the people squinting at the photos may. :D

Ok guys, got a few up. Will try to resize some more to fit the parameters!

certainly 19th century, possibly earlier

I agree with Oliver.

Also, typical Central Asian bipod on Tibetan example. Mongolian pieces are similar, but with straighter stocks.

I have held off commenting regarding your "Afghan" matchlock to see what others have to say, but since there has not been any comment, I will do so now.
I believe that your Afghan gun is in fact Omani, and my reason for thinking this is the shape of the stock.
Examples of Afghan and Omani stocks are shown below.....Afghan is #1 and Omani #2.
Note that the curve on the Omani, although similar, is much less than the Afghan.
Stu

I agree with Stu. The stock and the serpentine/pan configuration look Omani.
A nice looking piece.

The Tibetan gun is very interesting, and looks to be complete.

Would like to see more pics of the locks on both.

Nice pieces both.

Rick