Lot 97
97
A RARE CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE
A RARE CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE
A RARE CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE
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ARMS AND ARMOUR FROM THE COLLECTION OF HOWARD RICKETTS
A RARE CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE

SIGNED HAJI MUSTAFA, CAUCASUS, MID 19TH CENTURY

Details
A RARE CAUCASIAN MIQUELET LOCK RIFLE
SIGNED HAJI MUSTAFA, CAUCASUS, MID 19TH CENTURY
The sighted watered steel barrel slightly flared, with eight rifling grooves and finely inlaid with gold at the breech, the miquelet lock overlaid with stylised vegetal arabesques in gold and inscribed, three chased and nielloed silver barrel bands, set on a wooden full stock extensively inlaid with brass pins and mother-of-pearl panels, swelling butt with ivory butt-plate, horn forend tip
48 ¼in. (122.5cm.) long
Literature
Howard Ricketts and Philippe Missilier, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988, no.107
Howard Ricketts and David Sulzberger, Islamic Military Heritage, Nine centuries of Islamic Arms and Armour, Riyadh, 1991, p.42, no.227
Exhibited
Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988
Islamic Military Heritage, Nine centuries of Islamic Arms and Armour, Riyadh, 1991

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Lot Essay

Haji Mustafa is primarily known as a maker of pistols. Two pairs of pistols in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (V.O. 992 and V.O. 4761), are equipped with barrels stamped with his maker’s mark (Yurij A. Miller, Kaukasiske våben fra Eremitage museet, Skt. Petersborg: våbenkunst i Kaukasus og Transkaukasien i det 18.–19. århundrede, Næstved, 2000, pp.268, 114). Another miquelet lock pistol with a barrel and lock inscribed ‘work of Haji Mustafa’ is in the Wallace Collection, London (OA2014). That example is dated AH 127[0]/1853-4 AD. A pistol signed by Haji Mustafa and dated AH 1271⁄1854-5 AD, and additionally inscribed ‘owned by Salim Khan’, was formerly in the collection of Philippe Missillier and sold at Sotheby’s London, 29 April 2025, lot 120. The present rifle is the only known long gun by this gunsmith.

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