Spanish Miquelet Lock

[Philip]

Here are images of a beautiful Portuguese gun made by court gunsmith José Malaquias da Costa in Lisbon in 1820, formerly in the Clay Bedford Collection, published by Wallace Gusler and James Lavin in their book, Decorated Firearms 1540-1870, (Williamsburg 1977) from which the photo came, the gun sold at auction in the US last summer but I'll withhold name of venue without Moderators approval.

The lock has the long slender jaws and downward-canted tail of Rick's piece, it's a gorgeous thing with a large anti-friction roller on the mainspring (seen on many higher-grade guns from Lisbon as well as Eibar (Spain). Notice that the upper contour of the lockplate tail closely matches the downward cant of the top of the gunstock's wrist. A straight tail, or a French-style plate as on the Zenarro gun posted previously, would not harmonize so well with the stock's wrist orientation.

Mr Lavin, in the writeup of this gun in the book, has this to say about the stock:

"The general form of this gun conforms closely to that of mid-eighteenth-century Portuguese arms, while the decorative details are quite modern. Typical of the former is the straight tang [of the barrel, addition mine] with its surrounding areas well above the level of the small. This results in a boxiness of the lock mortise accentuating the thinness of the wrist that contrasts with the broad "Spanish" buttstock."

By "small", the author is referring to the wrist of the stock (area behind the lock and trigger).

Based on this, it would appear reasonable to point out the Portuguese manner of gunstock design, as opposed to the position of half-cock and full-cock sear studs, as a functional basis for the lockplate profile under discussion.