17th-Century Ottoman Miquelet Gun
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GUEST:
It initially belonged to Commodore Thomas Macdonough, who was a prominent naval officer in American history. When he was 16 he received a warrant from John Adams, the president at the time, to join the Navy. Shortly thereafter, he ended up serving on the U.S.S. Constellation, which went over to the first Barbary Wars over in the Mediterranean in Tripoli, which is now modern-day Libya. There, he was transferred to the U.S.S. Philadelphia, and shortly thereafter the U.S.S. Philadelphia ran aground and was captured by the Tripolitians. The crew was repatriated, Thomas Macdonough was reassigned to a smaller boat, the U.S.S. Enterprise. And about a year later, after being over there, the decision was made to try to recapture the U.S.S. Philadelphia from the Tripolitians or to destroy it-- sink it or burn it-- so that it couldn't be used against us. So since Thomas Macdonough had served as a crew member on the Philadelphia, he was selected to lead a party. They invaded the ship, were able to get fire set that burned it down to the water line. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to a first lieutenant. As was the tradition in the Navy and I still think is to this day. They bestow some sort of thing like a sword or a gun, a rifle, or something like that to the officer at the promotion. That's when he would have probably received this. And then they returned back to the United States and subsequently went back over a number of different time and he served very well until he was about forty two years old and passed away. When he passed away his possessions went to one of his brothers. When that brother passed away to another brother and so on and so forth till it finally ended up with a great-nephew, whose father was friends with my grandfather. My grandfather then gave it to my father, and then my father gave it to me.
APPRAISER:
So who do you think gave it to him?
GUEST:
Whoever would have been the officer that would have made their promotion in the field.
APPRAISER:
So we don't know if it was his commanding officer, Stephen Decatur, or not.
GUEST:
No, we don't.
APPRAISER:
Because Decatur, of course, had gotten a gold sword presented by the United States Congress for his activities in burning the Philadelphia.
GUEST:
The Philadelphia, yeah.
APPRAISER:
During the first Tripolitan War in 1804. Would it surprise you to know that the gun is Turkish?
GUEST:
Not at all, no.
APPRAISER:
Many of the features like this very tall elevation sight at the back, and also this very thick butt, and the way it sort of tapers here and comes down here are very characteristic of Turkish guns.
GUEST:
Is this jade, by chance? Do you know what these stone inlays are?
APPRAISER:
I think it's bone.
GUEST:
Bone?
APPRAISER:
And that has been dyed green.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
There's numerous marks on the gun, as you know, here on the top of the barrel. One on the Miquelet lock. And one here in the brass decoration. It's called a Miquelet lock because the lock mechanism is actually on the external portion. And this was a very common feature amongst Ottoman guns.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
From the 17th through the 19th centuries. Have you given any thought to value?
GUEST:
I really have not and I would hate to speculate.
APPRAISER:
One of the key desirable features of this gun is this thick butt which would indicate to me that the gun is probably 17th Century.
GUEST:
Wow
APPRAISER:
So it was actually antique when it was probably given to...
GUEST:
When it was given to him, it was already an antique.
APPRAISER:
...Commodore Macdonough, yeah. Because it was well over 100 years old. It does have some condition issues. There's losses to the brass, losses to the wood. But the market for this type of Islamic material is very strong. At auction I would estimate that it would make around $7,000 to $10,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my Lord. I absolutely had no idea, that's amazing.
APPRAISER:
It's a beautiful piece and quite early.
GUEST:
Well Thank You. Thank You.
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