OTTOMAN BALKANS, 19TH CENTURY

This finely decorated pair of pistols have densely decorated gilt-metal stocks and are excellent examples of the type associated with Ioannina in Epirus, Greece. Although the city gained a reputation for creating firearms by the turn of the 19^th century, the main profession was the decoration of arms. Especially renowned for its silverwork, guns were imported into Ioannina and ornamented in the style we find here (Elgood, Arms of Greece and Her Balkan Neighbours in the Ottoman Period, London, 2009, p.232).

Of note are the figural triggers. Elgood writes that this unusual feature might derive from anthropomorphic triggers on Italian pistols of the second half of the 17^th century before moving across into the Balkans. He further suggests that these triggers are in the form of an Epirot man, indicating that these pistols were intended for the local Epirot market (ibid, p. 238). A single finely decorated Balkan pistol with silver-gilt stock and similar figural triggers was sold in Christie’s, South Kensington, 30 September 2010, lot 38.

A further feature of our pistols is the figure of a man in gold on the top of the barrels. He wears a hat and coat, with a curved sword in his right hand. The barrels and lock may have an Italian origin or could have been manufactured in Prizren, Kosovo, where many flintlocks were manufactured for export (ibid, pp. 242-43) . Yet the fine gold decoration and appearance of the man would again suggest the work of Ioannina. A pair with a similar figure on the top of the barrel with this attribution was sold by Hermann Historica, 15^th November 2019, lot 3266.