Musket, Ottoman
Type: Musket
Maker: Unknown
Model: N/A
Year: Circa 1800
Age: c. 1800
Caliber: .75 cal. estimated
Serial: N/A
Description: An extremely long and luxuriously decorated example of an Ottoman/Turkish siege musket. Having a tapering barrel ending in an octagonal swamp this barrel profusely inlaid with brass wires in a complex and overall pattern. Seven large silver bands are reticulated and chased with scrolls, leaf and flower decoration. Further large silver plaques decorate the stock flats to beyond the lock, similarly as above. Inlaid and veneered reticulated ivory carvings further decorate the walnut stock. The lock is large and magnificent, composed of beautifully chased brass and steel. There are also some further small inlays of gilded silver and chased silver in floral and leaf form. An armourer's stamp of a musket lies atop the barrel as does the signature of the maker in Turkish in gold, inlaid into the steel. The rod is original worked steel also with inlays of brass.Ottoman/Turkish c. 1800.
Provenance: FL estate
Size: 71.25" overall
Weight: 15.6 pounds
Condition/Bore: Overall very good noting a small portion of the site is missing, one silver band is missing as is a small chip of ivory off the butt. Several small missing pieces of brass inlay on the barrel decoration reveal the depth of thee hand cutting preparatory to the brass inlay. Light rust in the bore, mechanics tight and fine. Meta: gun, firearm, Turkish, Turkey, Ottoman, Janissary tüfenks
History: In 1768 Russian-backed Haidamaks, pursuing Polish confederates, entered Balta, an Ottoman-controlled town on the border of Bessarabia, and massacred its citizens and burned the town to the ground. This action provoked the Ottoman Empire into the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774 ended the war and provided freedom to worship for the Christian citizens of the Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. By the late 18th century, a number of defeats in several wars with Russia led some people in the Ottoman Empire to conclude that the reforms of Peter the Great had given the Russians an edge, and the Ottomans would have to keep up with Western technology in order to avoid further defeats.Selim III (1789–1807) made the first major attempts to modernize the army, but reforms were hampered by the religious leadership and the Janissary corps. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change, the Janissary created a revolt. Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic Mahmud II, who eliminated the Janissary corps in 1826.The Serbian revolution (1804–1815) marked the beginning of an era of national awakening in the Balkans during the Eastern Question. Suzerainty of Serbia as a hereditary monarchy under its own dynasty was acknowledged de jure in 1830. In 1821, the Greeks declared war on the Sultan. More than 100,000 Greeks were massacred or enslaved on the island of Chios in 1822. A rebellion that originated in Moldavia as a diversion was followed by the main revolution in the Peloponnese, which, along with the northern part of the Gulf of Corinth, became the first parts of the Ottoman empire to achieve independence (in 1829). By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the "sick man" by Europeans. The suzerain states – the Principality of Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia and Montenegro – moved towards de jure independence during the 1860s and 1870s.