A large 19th century flintlock pistol

[corrado26]

Some time ago I wrote an article on such a pistol used in the Persian Army,
mmay be some of you are able to understand the German text.

[M ELEY]

Fascinating article, Corrado! Unfortunately, my German is very limited. From what you mentioned about Persian usage in the army, this is some of what I've heard about this type pistol. It served in other branches of the military and Leige shipped them out to the Middle East and possibly Africa(this last part not fully substantiated, but reported by several sources). Did your gun have a stamp to indicate Persian Empire? Was the ELG of the earlier or later stamp?

[corrado26]

The "W" under a crown at the pistol in question stands for one of the Dutch kings William I-III who reigned one after the other between 1815 and 1890. So an exakt date of manufacture can not be stated.

The pistol in my article shows an mark "CD" under a crown which stands for Coquilhat & Digreffe, a Liège firm between 1853 and 1858. Over that the pistol shows the Perron-mark of Liège, so used since 1830. The lockplate shows a weak or badly cut mark of the arsenal of Isfahan/Persia, I added the same, but clearer mark of a same pistol and a British paget carbine. This means, that this pistol has been made at Liège between 1853 and 1858 under attendance of a Persian acceptance officer who stamped the lockplate befor it got hardened.

Very interesting is that lots of these pistols showed up between 1905 and 1925 in the catalogues of the US firm of Francis Bannermann, New York, where they have been offered at a price firstly of 3,50$ and lastly US$ 6,25.