Description
with slender iron barrel formed in two stages with moulded and gilt girdle between, belled towards the muzzle, finely decorated with silver koftgari bands of running plantain leaves over its length, the forward half of the pattern enriched with gold koftgari flowerheads, and with supplementary small sprays of foliage also in gold koftgari at either end of the breech section, inlaid with a Persian quatrain together with the maker's signature, date and place of manufacture, a 'Haydar' talismanic square and the tiger mask cypher of Tipu Sultan all in fine gold koftgari, and with a 'Haydari' control mark and the vent each lined in gold, with bubri-shaped tang inscribed with the magic number 313, the lockplate and its full external complement of parts all cut in the form of bubris, the lockplate with bevelled edges, gold-lined 'Haydar' control mark, the maker's signature and the date and place of manufacture all in gold koftgari within a bubri-like scroll, an unusually elaborate 'Haydar' talismanic square inlaid in two colours of gold, fitted with safety-catch sliding along the upper rear edge of the lock, the stud minutely chiselled in the form of a tiger's head, and the jaws of the cock en suite, with figured walnut full stock carved with bubri and plantain mouldings in low relief about the lock, the side-plate and the breech tang, all enriched with inlaid bubri-shaped horn plaques, the butt carved with a shell-like palm moulding characteristically at the front of the comb, also inlaid with horn bubris and trailing a single flute along the full length of both sides, with full silver mounts cast in low relief and struck with 'Haydar' control marks throughout, including the butt-plate and the trigger-guard each with plantain spray finial, the butt-plate also engraved with the tiger mark cypher of Tipu Sultan on a contrasting punched ground, small ramrod-pipes of characteristic type, vacant escutcheon, and original sling-swivels and ramrod each of iron
Catalogue Note
LITERATURE AND REFERENCESRobin Wigington, op.cit, 1992, TR18, pp.95-100.
CATALOGUE NOTEinscriptions
On the barrel, in mirror form creating a tiger-face:
asadullah al -ghalib
"The Lion of God is Triumphant".
karkhaneh-ye/huzur
"[Royal] court Workshop" or "His Highness's workshop".
tofang-e bi-nazir-e khosraw-e hend
ke bashad barq-e suzan thani-ye u
tavanad sar-nevesht-e khasm bar-dasht
hadaf gardad agar pishani-ye u
"The peerless gun of the Emperor of India
To which the forked lightning is second
Can seal the fate of the enemy
If [the enemy's] forehead is made the target".
On the barrel and repeated on the lock:
Dated in Mawludi year 1223/1794-5.
Maker's name as Sayyid 'Ali, place of manufacture Patan.
The talismanic square with the letters H/Y/D/R for 'Haydar'.
The control mark 'Haydar' in gold.
On the butt, in mirror form creating a tiger-face:
asadullah al-ghalib
"The Lion of God is Triumphant".
The control mark 'Haydar' four times in silver
