A CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE SIGNED ‘ALI, POSSIBLY KUBACHI, CAUCASUS,...

A CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE
SIGNED ‘ALI, POSSIBLY KUBACHI, CAUCASUS, DATED AH 1264 / 1847-8 AD
The sighted steel barrel with slight central ridge and eight rifling grooves, extensively inlaid with gold in a stylised vegetal arabesque, miquelet lock mechanism with stamped maker’s mark and decorated en-suite, three nielloed silver barrel bands, set on a wooden full stock fully covered with black leather and nielloed silver mounts decorated with stylised vegetal arabesques, swelling butt with ivory butt-plate, button trigger, twisted steel ramrod overlaid with gold
52 ¾in. (134cm.) long

Provenance
Howard Ricketts and Philippe Missilier, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988, no.106
Howard Ricketts and David Sulzberger, Islamic Military Heritage, Nine centuries of Islamic Arms and Armour, Riyadh, 1991, p.42, no.226

Literature
Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988
Islamic Military Heritage, Nine centuries of Islamic Arms and Armour, Riyadh, 1991