A rare Ottoman Ivory-Mounted Rifle with the tughra of Mahmud I (A.H.1143- 68/ A.D.1730-54), Turkey, mid-18th century

the pattern-welded steel barrel with gold overlaid lobed cartouches, the wooden stock faced with ivory richly decorated with inlaid mosaic hexagrams, the stock with teardrop shaped coral set in bands of engraved silver, a small tughra stamp on the barrel, the butt plate of replacement ivory

some losses of coral and ivory with replacement parts, replacement butt end, some inlaid mosaic missing, as viewed.
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inscriptions
Signed as: 'Work of Mahmud ibn Muhammad'
With the tughra of Mahmud I (A.H. 1143- 68/A.D. 1730-54)
Stamped maker's name as:  'Work of Khidr (?) ibn Muhammad'

It is thought that this rare type of gun bearing white and green-stained ivory decoration was made for the bodyguard of the Ottoman sultan. Traditionally ascribed to the late 17th/ early 18th century (Paris 1988, no. 42 and 43), a dated example in the Khalili collects ion (d. A.H. 1191 / A.D. 1777-8) suggests that the whole group should be reassigned to a later period (Alexander 1992, pp.128-129, no.73). Michael Rogers, however, convincingly points to documentation that such pieces were certainly manufactured in 17th century Istanbul: "In his account of Bitlis in 1655-6, Evliya Celebi gives a list of muskets by the most reputed makers allegedly in the collects ion of Abdal Khan, the ruler of that principality. Among the Istanbul masters, he lists Memi, Kuçuk Omer, Uzun Mehmed and Kara Mehmed Ketbeli as specialists in jewelling and encrustation" (Rogers 1995, p.154).

Comparable examples of ivory-inlaid Ottoman guns are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 32.75.270), the Military Museum in Istanbul (Palace of Gold and Light, Washington, 2000, p.160, no.E25), the Victoria & Albert Museum (North, A., An Introduction to Arms and Armour, London, 1985, p.11, fig.3b), the Wallace collects ion (Laking, G., Wallace collects ion Catalogues: Oriental Arms and Armour, London, 1914, no.2091) and the Khalili collects ion in London (Alexander 1992, pp.126-9, nos.72 and 73; Paris 1988, no.42), as well as two privately owned in Denmark (Islamic Arms and Armour from Danish Private collects ions, Copenhagen, 1982, nos. 40 and 41) and a number of others.

To the best of our knowledge, this rifle is the only example known to bear the tughra of Mahmud I (A.H. 1143- 68/A.D. 1730-54).