Great piece! It would fit well into my collection!
If you look more closely at the last photo of the muzzle, you'll see that the iron barrel shows itself at the muzzle by a rough ring maybe one or two mm thick. The reason it appears that the brass bell only covers the exposed part of the barrel is that the entire flat of the muzzle has darkened and corroded with age. Only the exposed edge has had handling wear or polishing that exposes what appears to be a partial wrap.
This is a fairly unique bit of embellishment that I might have seen only once or twice before, although in not very familiar with Portuguese guns.
But, to restate it, the rusted bore and muzzle shows by reason of its different texture than the darkened brass bell.
Great piece!
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