Lot 39
39
AN OTTOMAN FLINTLOCK RIFLE
AN OTTOMAN FLINTLOCK RIFLE
AN OTTOMAN FLINTLOCK RIFLE
AN OTTOMAN FLINTLOCK RIFLE
3 More
ARMS AND ARMOUR FROM THE COLLECTION OF HOWARD RICKETTS
AN OTTOMAN FLINTLOCK RIFLE

SIGNED SIVAN, OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 18TH CENTURY

Details
AN OTTOMAN FLINTLOCK RIFLE
SIGNED SIVAN, OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 18TH CENTURY
The octagonal watered steel sighted barrel with nine-groove rifling, silver inlay in rococo vegetal motifs along the length of the barrel, maker’s mark , flintlock mechanism decorated en-suite with silver inlay, three repoussé silver barrel bands, set on a wooden stock extensively inlaid with khatamkari in ivory, stained bone and copper alloy, with swelling faceted butt, green dyed ivory fore-end cap, button trigger, ramrod, one suspension loop on each side
46 7/8in. (119cm.) long
Literature
Howard Ricketts and Philippe Missillier, Splendeurs des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988, no. 46
Exhibited
Splendeurs des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988
Engraved
On the barrel, a maker's mark, ‘amal-i sivan, ‘work of Sivan’

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Lot Essay

A shorter flintlock rifle on a closely comparable stock is in the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait (Robert Elgood, 1995, pp. 54, 191, no.12). The barrel of that rifle is stamped with a maker’s mark reading ‘work of Muhammad’. Other comparable flintlock rifles are in the Wallace Collection, London (OA2087; Thom Richardson and Paula Turner (eds.), The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Arms & Armour from Asia, Africa and the Ottoman World, London, 2026, p.401), and the Benaki Museum, Athens (5791). The latter was purportedly owned by Nikolaos Petimezas (1790-1865), a key figure in the Greek War of Independence (Robert Elgood, The Arms of Greece and her Balkan Neighbours during the Ottoman Period, London, 2009, p.173).

This lot has a standard ivory exemption (ref. C9N1RKH9).

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