Tribute to early Ottoman pistols

[rickystl]

Hi Kubur.

Those pistols are indeed beautiful. And, as you mentioed, early Ottoman examples that are extremely rare. A couple of observations: Notice the general style of the grip areas of the stocks. The pistol at the top seems to have an almost pentagonal grip. That pistol, along with the second and fourth pistols have stocks that remind me of Saxon style wheellock pistols. While the stock of the third pistol is similar to English style wheellock/doglock pistols of the second quarter of the 17th Century. We know that general styling of guns in the Ottoman Empire tended to last much longer than their European counterparts. So the late 18th Century for these is probably a reasonable guess with the miquelet locks. They are definately earlier than most encountered today.
Also, you seldom see Ottoman style pistols with full octagon barrels. They are usually tapered octagon-to-round, which usually is a lighter weight barrel.
Another curious feature of two of the pistols is the lack of trigger guards. Usually the only Ottoman style guns you see without trigger guards have ball style triggers. The two above have European style triggers without guards. Usually, the only pistols you see like this have Moroccan/Algerian origins. Very interesting.

Thanks for posting these pistols. I think they should all be sent to my house for further study and evaluation.

Rick