Need help with this one.... Turkish??

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peterk1234

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Hi guys. I am trying to figure out the story behind this pistol. My dad brought here from Hungary. Since the Hungarians devoted quite a bit of time fighting off the Turks, could it be from there? Appreciate any feedback. Pete

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I have one very much like it. Mine came from Greece, but these were typical throughout the Turkish-occupied Balkans. They date anywhere from 1750-1830 (more or less). Usually, the hard-to-manufacture parts, like locks and barrels, were imported from places like Italy and assembled locally. The degree of ornamentation is what set the value to the buyer. These were as much status symbols as weapons to be used. You find them with elaborately carved stocks, silver wire inlays, and jewel (semi-precious stone) incrustations.

One typical characteristic of these is the lack of a ramrod. They sometimes have a dummy ramrod carved as part of the stock. Other times, the external ramrod channel and pipes are there, but the stock is not drilled to actually accommodate a ramrod. (The ramrod was carried separately. I have even seen a Serbian short sword (yataghan) with a pistol ramrod carried in the scabbard.) The pistols, often in multiples, along with short swords, were carried thrust through a wide waist sash.

Sometimes the entire front of the pistol was covered by an embossed silver sleeve. These sleeves are relatively rare, because if the owners fell on hard times they would sell the sleeves for their silver content. My pistol is missing its original sleeve, and I have been trying to find one unsuccessfully for years.
 
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This has the silver inlays. Very thin wire, a bunch of it is missing. Would it devalue it if wire was inlaid again to the parts where it has fallen out? I need to have someone put a camera down the barrel as well because I think there may be a ball still down there. Below you can see some of the inlays, and where it is missing. Pete

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This has the silver inlays. Very thin wire, a bunch of it is missing. Would it devalue it if wire was inlaid again to the parts where it has fallen out? I need to have someone put a camera down the barrel as well because I think there may be a ball still down there. Below you can see some of the inlays, and where it is missing. Pete
Mine also has the silver wire inlay. Some of it is missing. I think this is rather typical. I have decided to leave mine alone. This is a lost art, and I don't know if modern craftsmen can be found that can do a credible job of restoration.

My father brought mine back from Europe after a trip in 1959. That was a present for me as a 14-year-old. We put a flint in the lock, and for years we used to spark the lock every so often to see that it worked. After a few years, I decided to give it a thorough cleaning. The first thing I found was that there was an obstruction in the barrel. Using a hook made from a coat hanger, I pulled out a bunch of rags. Behind the rags the barrel was about 1/4 full of caked black powder! Imagine if that had gone off with all the sparking we had been doing! (I think the reason it didn't go off was that the touchhole was full of dried dirt and grease.)

You don't need a camera to check the barrel. Just put a cleaning rod down the barrel and measure that it goes down as far as the touchhole. Bounce the cleaning rod against the breech plug and see if it rings. These pistols are usually about .62 caliber. You should be able to find a small flashlight to drop down the bore.
 
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