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Ripoll Spanish miquelet pistol

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Joined
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Location
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First off, sorry about the bad overall pictures. I shouldn't have taken them in that room. It is too dark and the background, too light.

I don't know as much about these Spanish miquelets so this is harder for me to date. I believe it pre-dates 1700 because of the barrel tang screwed from underneath but these locks changed so little I don't know if it is 1630 or 1690. One neat early feature, the trigger guard is also the barrel screw. It is obviously missing the brass ornamentation on the stock. I guess whoever used it did not like it. Given the wear, it has been gone a long time. I also think it's really interesting to have such a long barrel tang with the screw right next to the barrel.
 

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It does look like an "early" Spanish miquelet, but there is no real way to tell since many lock variations were produced simultaneously over a three century period. Does it have a half-cock sear? The metal parts appear to have been severely "cleaned" possibly to remove rust. There should be proof or makers' marks on the barrel but they may be quite eroded. Is the trigger guard made in two pieces so that the forward bow can be unscrewed to release the barrel? The top jaw screw loop appears to have a brazed repair that looks recent. The ornamental nose cap, barrel band, butt cap, and over-lay at the breech tang may have been originally made of silver. This would explain their having been removed at sometime in the past. The silver pieces would have had more value than the gun. An interesting gun nonetheless, but not much can be ascertained from these pictures alone.
 
I buy almost all my guns in France so often they are in "European white" as they don't seem to like patina (granted I have gotten a few evidently not worth cleaning that were nice patinaed near relics). I think the flash and the cleaning is messing with the braze patina. I believe it is a period repair. It is odd to not see a maker mark since they are usually so deep and easy to see on a Spanish arm. There may have been something at the breech but it is long gone now. The trigger guard is one piece. You just pull the nail out (modern, replaced) and the whole thing turns. I hadn't thought about the overlays being silver. That makes a lot of sense. I will have to look at it to tell you about the half-cock. I don't have it in front of me at the moment. I will pull the lock and barrel and see if there are marks anywhere inside and get a few pictures to see if that helps dating. It's a cute little piece even if I never learn much more about it.
 
Some of the very early Spanish miquelet locks lacked a half-cock sear. That seemed to come along later as they evolved. I have seen a similar pistol some time ago in an exhibit. I am going to attempt to attache it to this post but if it fails, PM me your off-site email and I will send it via email.
miquelet%20lock
 
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