Hi Osobist.
Congratulations!! That is a nice looking Albanian pistol. You can tell it was used, but not abused as they say. This one has the one piece longer barrel band/muzzle cover you don't see as often on Albanian pistols. Usually the barrel is held with one or two narrower bands. Very attractive on this pistol.
The butt stock/grip area is one of the two most commonly seen on Albanian pistols (the other being the rat-tail variation). It's somewhat similar to Greek pistols.
The style of miquelet lock on this pistol is sometimes simply called the Balkan lock. It was the most common lock style found on Albanian pistols and long guns. Probably made at one of the many gun shops in the Balkans. It appears that this lock must have been very popular as it shows up on all kinds of different Eastern type guns. My personal experience with this lock has been that the function and reliability are better than most of the other Ottoman/Balkan locks. This might be the reason it shows up on so many guns from this Region.
If you look closely, you might find on the top breech of the barrel or the front of the frizzen an engraved Albanian state bird crest.
A suggestion: The photos show the lock in full cock position. You might want to position the frizzen forward and release the hammer all the way down. That way there is not undo stress on the mainspring.
Again, congratulations. A really nice example.
Just for comparison, here are three Albanian pistols. Two have the butt stock similar to yours, the other being the rat-tail variation. Notice two of the pistols utilize the same Balkan style miquelet, while the other is mounted with a French style flintlock, less commonly seen on Albanian pistols.
Rick
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