A Balkan (Souliot) 14-Bore Flintlock Gun (Kariophili), 19th Century

With earlier two-stage barrel (worn) with bulbous muzzle and retained by five shaped white-metal barrel bands each chased with foliage and a double-headed eagle surmounted by a cross, the rear one carrying the back-sight, long octagonal breech stamped with indistinct maker's marks between six groups of three fleur-de-lys marks, rounded lock engraved with spurious signature, full stock (repairs around the lock) entirely covered in white-metal, the fore-stock embossed overall with a trellised design of flower-heads, and in front of the trigger-guard with a female figure probably representing Judith, holding a severed head above a double-headed eagle surmounted by a cross, the 'fish-tail' butt decorated with foliage and eagles en suite, all within borders of repeated foliage enclosing the owner's name 'Dimitrios Karandreas' in Greek on one side, the rear of the butt with a pair of applied white-metal birds on each side, trigger-guard en suite with the stock, trigger cast in the round as an Epirot in contemporary costume, chased rectangular suspension loops, and iron ramrod
92.5 cm. barrel

Dimitirios Karandreas, a forebear of the vendor, was a Greek warrior during the Greek Revolution of 1821 in the area of Doridas (central Greece) and took part in various battles there. In 1836 it is thought that he or his father was mayor in the municipality of Aigitiou, as it was then known

For a related gun with the same form of trigger see Robert Elgood, The Arms Of Greece..., 2009, p. 241, fig. 303