Quote:
Originally Posted by rickystl
Congratulations !!! That has to be at least one of, if not the best looking example I've seen. And a great job of cleaning. It just looks wonderful. It looks so complete and unmolested.
The snaphaunce lock is of the English pattern, and seems to have been used on every Altit form I've seen.
The iron protrusion on the end of the butt stock has always been a mystery to me. And only the Altit forms have this feature.
Again, congrats.
Rick
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That metal protrusion at the heel of the butt is a holdover from an archaic feature seen on some handgonne and early matchlock stocks from northern Europe, late 15th-early 16th cent. On those, there was no metal buttplate per se, the stock was roughly shaped from a single piece of wood.
The origins of firearms in Morocco are indeed traceable to England, possibly as early as the 16th cent. You might be interested in an article by the late S. James Gooding, "The Snaphaunce Muskets of al-Maghreb al-Aqsa" published in
Arms Collecting, Vol 34, No 3, The export of "Barbary guns" to Morocco is documented as early as 1588 although it is not certain whether thee earliest merchandise consisted of snaphaunces or matchlocks. The Dutch also made snaphaunces for the North Africa export trade, Mr Gooding cites an example marked to the firm of Tomson & Son, Rotterdam, ca 1800.
An article by Brian Goodwin, "Some observations on the Decoration of English Snaphaunce Guns 1584-1622" in the handbook to the London Park Lane Arms Fair 2015 illustrates a number of examples with design characteristics evident on Moroccan-made long guns of centuries later.