I agree, Richard. The stocks were made in two pieces, the original glue joints just happened to separate at some time in the past. This sort of joint, somewhere along the forestock, is common on many types of Eastern guns. You see it on Indian toreadors on occasion. Persian and Caucasian gunmakers liked to use fiddleback-grain woods. and apparently had trouble finding single pieces long enough for a one-piece stock. I once had a very fine Caucasian smothbore gun, this was a class act with really good damascus barrel and a Persian-made miquelet rivalling European locks in fit and finish. But the maker had to make the stock out of 3 pieces, he was obviously cherry-picking to maximize the grain contrast from end to end. Unfortunately I sold the piece years ago and didn't save any images. What's nice is that Caucasian long guns tend to have wide silver sleeves as barrel-bands, and proper positioning of these can really give the impression that you're looking at a single piece of wood unless you examine closely and see a bit of the joint, or the unavoidable slight mismatch in grain.
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