Subject: murid warrior

Culture: Chechen, Dagesh, Circassian

Setting: Caucasian Wars, North Caucasus 1834-1864

Object: tapcha pistol

Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *

"Miquelet lock pistol Russian, Caucasus, early 19th century

The miquelet lock is identified by the external mainspring,

and the horizontally acting sear which protrudes through the hole in the lock plate in front of the cock when the pistol is ready to fire.

The ball-butt of ivory is characteristic of this region." ..

Museo de América > El Conocimiento de América *

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor

"Miquelet Pistol Steel, wood, silver, niello Caucasian, early 19th century"

"Miquelet Pistol Steel, silver, niello, leather, ivory, gold Caucasian, dated 1846/47

The barrel is signed in both Russian and Arabic by the maker.

This suggests that the pistol was made in Tiflis, which was then under Russian control.

The other major armsmaking center in the Caucasus, the village of Kubatchi in Dagestan, did not fall under Russian domination until the 1860s."

"Percussion Pistol Steel, silver, gold, niello Caucasian, mid-19th century, barrel dated 1792"