Albanian/Turkish inscription and proofs

[Marcus]

Can anyone help me interpret the inscription on my Tanckicha rifle, or identify the proofs?

Marcus

This is the gun:


The inscription:

Proof on the barrel:

Proof on the lock:


Here it is compared to my pistol:

[Marcus]

Here are some close ups:

[rickystl]

Marcus: That's a very good looking T-Stock rifle and Rat-Tail pistol. Have one of each myself. Unfortunatly, can't help with the inscriptions. Again, nice guns.
Incidently, have you noticed the price of the Middle Eastern type guns recently? A number of Dealers have told me these guns are selling for up to twice what they were since only about 2006. I can remember when Dealers would only take them on consignment. They tell me there seems to be a renewed interest, especially in the last 3-4 years. They don't no why?
Thanks again for posting.

[Marcus]

rickystl,
Have you seen my other recent post on the rat-tail pistols? There is discussion on whether they might have been contract pieces for the Ottoman military. There are a couple books that would support that but some members of this forum offer alternative suggestions and quite a lot of interesting information.
Marcus

[Mefidk]

Beautiful rifle
Sorry I can't help with the inscription either, in fact I even have one of my own I should post at some point. But I can offer a possible explanation as to the rising interest in these based on my own behaviour. I started collecting these a couple of years ago mostly because swords were getting difficult to ship due to many restrictions in different countries e.g. ebay.co.uk will not carry them, some postal services will not carry them, add customs difficulties and often shipping becomes too expensive for lower priced ethnographic weapons. No restrictions on these old muzzle loaders though, and that, combined with low prices made them an attractive 'second string'. Of course now I'm hooked so the only problem is that I'll need a bigger house if I want to put too many of these on the wall

[A.alnakkas]

Am not much into guns but thats one beautiful rifle. Congrats.

Its not written in in turkish nor albanian it looks georgian to me. i could be wrong though (most likely :P)

[eftihis]

Well, i am sorry to say that the inscription...is not an inscription!
This is a balkan rifle and the barell locally made for an individual, not an "army contract". All over Balkans people at these times recognised the superiority of Western European made arms, made in organised workshops, and therefore clients prefered to buy "european" instead of local guns. Put it an other way, the seller could sell for more money if it was a "branded" european product. This leaded in 1) so many fake inscriptions (eg Lazaro Cominanzo etc), and 2) to the practise of just putting latin letters assembled with no order or sense on the barell! Well, the client was illiterate anyway, and even more on a foreign language! But he was happy because he had a gun with a "high quality imported european barell".
As for the prices of these guns, their prices rose untill recently due to demand from Greece, since they are guns that were used in our revolution of 1821. However, the economy as all know is very bad, and many people are not only stoped buying, but also start selling the ones they have.... This refers less to true collectors, and more to people that "invested" in these guns having a "stock exchange" mentality. SO my feeling is that prices will fall and normalise again. And more importand, only reall collectors that love them will buy them and not others with the idea of reselling latter.

[rickystl]

Hi Marcus. I've only glanced at the Rat Tail Post. I want to read all the responses and maybe add some comments. Have not had time yet, but I will soon.
Mefidk and Eftihis: Thanks for the additional information. I agree. Rick.

[rickystl]

Originally Posted by Marcus

rickystl,
Have you seen my other recent post on the rat-tail pistols? There is discussion on whether they might have been contract pieces for the Ottoman military. There are a couple books that would support that but some members of this forum offer alternative suggestions and quite a lot of interesting information.
Marcus

Hi Marcus. Well, I'm finally back home. Thanks for the heads-up on your post re Rat Tail pistols. VERY interesting thread!! My first guess is that either case could be made. That these guns were made and used virtually unchanged for at least 200+ years is probably the reason so many specimens are still available today.
Here is one of mine. This is the other (besides rat tail) butt style often encountered on Albanian pistols. This one I use for shooting. It has a mechanically good re-worked lock and a modern steel barrel liner for safe shooting. It is .59 caliber. Fun shooting!!