Thank you RDG!! and its great talking again. Im glad you keep these jezail mysteries coming. Frankly speaking of mysteries, Ive been adrift on the seven seas of markings mysteries for more years than I care to say, and for every remotely possible answer there are about a dozen more questions.
This thread got me going on these British locks and it seems that a lot of the complexities are addressed in a book by Goldstein and Mowbray titled "The Brown Bess" which covers them in great detail (I havent seen it but would love to have it if I could smuggle it into the Bookmobile). I think that the identification and authentication of these is plagued by the many rifts between the Board of Ordnance and the contractors for the East India Co. in administrative issues and the numbers involved. It certainly does seem possible that actual stamps used by these contractors might have ended up with some of these makers in Afghan regions, or may have been well duplicated. Some of the markings stamped in North African weapons can be pretty convincing, and incongruent contexts are the only giveaway often.
In the marks here, as mentioned the long tail 7 nicely complies with those typically seen on English locks, and actually even the oddly made 8 looks like one found on an authentically marked English lock. The only real test is probably to locate the makers initials on the inside of the lock. Apparantly these can often vary from the name on the outside as well.
Fascinating guns these jezails!!! and the mysteries in these locks.
All the best,
Jim
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