Mameluk (Mamelouk) Pistol
Manufacture Impériale de Versailles
File
relating to a very rare example of a Mamluk officer's pistol, general officer
type.
DESCRIPTION.
Context:
In terms
of Mamluk handguns, we can distinguish the short-barreled pistol worn on the
belt in a "Kobourg" made of richly embroidered fabric. Some of these pistols,
probably intended for officers, have a slightly longer barrel decorated in gold
at the thunder and at the end of the barrel.
A model
of similar general shape but much longer and whose barrel extends to the muzzle
of the barrel, has often been described as a "Mamluk officer's pistol". Based on
the prices defined for so-called Mamluk officer's pistols in the Versailles
archives, this hypothesis is unrealistic. It is more likely that these long
pistols were intended to appear in saddle casts.
The
officers of the Mamluk Corps, in very limited numbers (12 recorded over the
entire duration of the existence of this dissolved corps after Waterloo), had
the possibility of ordering personalized weapons from Versailles. These pistols
of much richer manufacture are consequently extremely rare and the known
examples present variants. Some have entirely silver fittings. The example
presented here is mounted in iron and entirely bronzed. The caliber of the
Mamluk weapons is 14.5 mm. Any weapon of more or less similar shape, but of
another caliber, cannot be considered as Mamluk weapons.
Description:
Barrel:
five-sided at the thunder then round. Rear sight and barleycorn. Stepped breech
tail. Screw mounting at the rear and two pins at the stock.
Lock:
round body, then flat. Round iron bassinet. Swan neck hammer. Battery with upper
and lower turnbacks
Fittings:
all in bronzed iron. Half-Charollaise trigger guard forming a sub-guard with a
front cut in the shape of an urn. Rod holder in two cylinders fixed with a pin.
No counter-plate, but two “ear” pellets. Oval cap decorated with a motif in the
round representing a turban with a plume (fixed by a side screw). Whalebone
ramrod with a conical brass head and equipped with a cloth holder.
Frame: In
selected walnut. Long foregrip. Finely checkered butt with a steep slope. Rim
before the metal cap.
Markings:
Barrel:
“PB” of Pierre Bouny (2nd class controller of cannons until 4/8/1807. “C” of
Chapelle (inspector). Punch and three cartridges of Boutet with thunder (marks
used by Boutet from 1805 to 1814).
Lock:
“Mre IMPle de Versailles” (graphics used from 1807 to 1814). Punch DX of
Deschasseaux (first controller). We find the punch of Deschasseaux on the wood,
on the counter-lock side.
According
to the markings, we can date the weapon from 1807.
Gribeauval
Mameluk (Mamelouk) Pistol
