[Raf]

Hi . Sorry I cant help you much with the barrel mark. I have two of these guns both of which have stamped European looking marks ( a T within a diamond and numbers ) but the barrels are not I think European . One has an attempt at the Cominaz appellation to invite association with the famous Cominazzo family of barrel makers.

The odd thing about these guns is that they invariably turn up with crudely made and decorated stocks that are completely at odds with the locks and barrels which are of outstanding quality and this can make them look a bit suspect . My view is that they were originally high status guns that have moved down market and probably been re stocked several time in they're working life. The Royal Armouries , Leeds , UK has a garniture of firearms presented to the British Consul in Algiers in the 1770s which are profusely inlaid with coral carbuchons. The locks of which are as good but no better than the examples illustrated here. I think yours has been carefully refinished some time ago which has considerably improved its appearance as the stocks on mine are unutterably horrid.

You probably know all this but I will post it here anyway . They are usually described as Kabyle guns, but I think should be described as Arabian toe locks . Which are a variation of the seventeenth century Spanish aqujeta which is derived from the the romanlock or Italian toe lock (arguably) developed in Italy in the second half of the sixteenth century. Made in Morocco / Algeria , usually described as nineteenth century (isn everything ) but the Met, New York attributes their example to the mid eighteenth century and I can't see any reason why some may not be earlier.