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Originally Posted by Montagnard
Hi Stu,
Thx a lot for your sharp observations and conclusions. Any guess how old it could be?
By now, I brought it to a skilled carpenter for restoration.
It is interesting, many discussions on those matchlocks end often up in either south-indian or afghani origin.
Maybe the ornaments at the muzzle could give a hint to where the gun actually came from?
Cheers,
Montagnard
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Hi Montagnard,
Pleased that you have the stock restoration underway. Please post pics of the finished job when done. Hopefully you will also have the metalwork cleaned up and rust removed/stabilised, and replacement bands made where necessary.
I have always looked at the stock/butt shape to try and arrive at origin point, as indeed have others here. If you have Tirri's book, check out his pics of the Afghani Matchlocks.
The Indian Torador style (usually) has a pronounced notch behind the match cock. The muzzle (barrel) on yours could be Persian or Indian or indeed from anywhere....it must be remembered that these guns were "locally" made so any useful or available bit was used in their construction.
Age would be a pure guess as matchlocks were made up to a much later time than in the "west". My guess on your gun would be 19th century up to (maybe) the early 20th century.
I have attached some pics showing matchlock stock styles of various regions.
In order they are: Omani, Indo-Persian, North Indian. There are of course others but these are the ones I have in my collection. Also attached a pic of a typical Torador taken from the 'Net. Note the long thin butt....
Stu