KNEE PISTOL for COMMENT

[Kubur]

Corrado your firearm collection is amazing.
I'm speechless.
Tell me if i'm wrong, the style of this gun is very French.
I will say around 1805-1815.

[corrado26]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Tell me if i'm wrong, the style of this gun is very French.
I will say around 1805-1815.

Honestly I have to say that I don't know where this piece has been made. Its lock is certainly not French but maybe English and the signature on the lockplate makes absolutely no sense. I think this pistol might have been made in the Osman Empire by a very good gunmaker for a higher ranked person.
corrado26

[kahnjar1]

Hi Corrado,
I see from the pics that you have had the barrel off the stock. Are there any marks on the underside, and if so could you please posts pics. Origin (at least of the barrel) may be solved by such marks.
Stu

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by corrado26

Honestly I have to say that I don't know where this piece has been made. Its lock is certainly not French but maybe English and the signature on the lockplate makes absolutely no sense. I think this pistol might have been made in the Osman Empire by a very good gunmaker for a higher ranked person.
corrado26

Amigo
I'm sure it's French or at least Belgian, early 19th c.
You can find a lot of litterature about these guns made for export - for the Turkish market.
Sometimes they engraved 'LONDON' on the barrel or the lock.
At that time it was very 'chic' to have something from London.
I guess now too.
I think that someone tried to writte LONDON on your lock, but he wrote NULTEN. Clearly the guy was not fluent in English and probably better in Arabic...
Best,
Kubur

[corrado26]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Are there any marks on the underside, and if so could you please posts pics. Origin (at least of the barrel) may be solved by such marks.

Sorry, but there are no marks anywhere, neither at the underside of the barrel, at the inside of the stock nor at the inside of the lockplate.
corrado26

[corrado26]

Originally Posted by Kubur

I'm sure it's French or at least Belgian, early 19th c.
You can find a lot of litterature about these guns made for export - for the Turkish market.
Sometimes they engraved 'LONDON' on the barrel or the lock.
At that time it was very 'chic' to have something from London.
I guess now too.
I think that someone tried to writte LONDON on your lock, but he wrote NULTEN. Clearly the guy was not fluent in English and probably better in Arabic...

This wrong signature shows me that it is probably made in the Osmanic Empire. A French or Belgium gunmaker would have been able to write the LONDON-adress correctly because he knew the Roman letters, whereas a Turkish worker without knowledge of the european ABC used very often phantasy letters
corrado26

[Richard G]

Two points I would like to make;-

It occurs to me that a butt of this type would sit more comfortably on your lap or thigh than that of a pistol if it was being held upright to load whilst on horseback.

Although the consensus is that these are mounted men's weapons none of these examples seem to to possess a slide or ring or any mechanism to tether the thing if not being held.

Just thoughts
Regards
Richard

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Richard G

Although the consensus is that these are mounted men's weapons none of these examples seem to to possess a slide or ring or any mechanism to tether the thing if not being held.

I also have thought about that, why would there not be some way to hold these types secure as in the examples below.

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by Richard G

Two points I would like to make;-

It occurs to me that a butt of this type would sit more comfortably on your lap or thigh than that of a pistol if it was being held upright to load whilst on horseback.

Although the consensus is that these are mounted men's weapons none of these examples seem to to possess a slide or ring or any mechanism to tether the thing if not being held.

Just thoughts
Regards
Richard

Good observation. I heard that it's very difficult to shoot accurately whilst sitting astride a highly strung and nervous animal, so the buckshot would be more effective than a single musketball. I guess these knee pistols are nothing but glorified sawn-off shotguns in reality? They would have been useful to shotgun messengers on stagecoaches too. They may have been considered too clumsy to be carried across the back when on a bumpy ride and therefore kept in saddle holsters?

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Victrix

They may have been considered too clumsy to be carried across the back when on a bumpy ride and therefore kept in saddle holsters?

A possibility, but I do not believe that I have seen a saddle holster for an Indo-Persian blunderbuss so far, maybe someone else has.

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by corrado26

This wrong signature shows me that it is probably made in the Osmanic Empire. A French or Belgium gunmaker would have been able to write the LONDON-adress correctly because he knew the Roman letters, whereas a Turkish worker without knowledge of the european ABC used very often phantasy letters
corrado26

Yes it's exactly what I said!
But for me the engraving was made later.