Matchlock Pistol ?

[fernando]

Originally Posted by rickystl

... I know there are examples of Japanese pistols (which I believe were more of a status symbol in most cases) ...

... Like this example offered to the famous Scottish medical missionary David Livingstone by Tippo Tib, a known slave trader of Arab origin, who would have met the famous African explorer, in one of his visits to a slave market in the mid XIX century, as referred in Livingston memories.
The barrel has silver decorations of fruits, mountains and two birds of prey fighting.
The lock has an internal spring rolled spiral wise, one of the Niponic variations of main spring.
(From the book AS ARMAS e OS BARÕES de Eduardo Nobre)

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