Punjabi Torador or Bandook (Matchlock Musket)
Full Description:
A lacquered wood, matchlock gun of long and slender Punjabi form, the wooden butt and stock elaborately covered in polychromatic decorations with red, pink, and blue-green petalled flowers and green foliage on a gold background. The metal side-plates are treated with the same motifs, although they are affected by flash damage, indicating that the gun has been fired.
The butt is straight, slender, and five-sided; the D-shaped trigger is cut and pierced. When the trigger is depressed, the match-holder(serpentine) would have lowered a lit match towards the pan. The pan cover is retained, and still working to keep the pan dry when not in use. The octagonal barrel is forged from pattern-welded, Damascus steel with traces of gold koftgari. The barrel is held to the stock with three barrel bands, one of which is a later replacement.
There are two matchlock muskets from the Royal Armouries, Leeds, UK, illustrated in the 1999 book, edited by Susan Stronge, ‘The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms’ (pages 140–141). They are believed to have been made in Lahore in the early 19th century, and between them, they share many similarities to the gun shown here. A third was displayed as part of the 2015 Metropolitan Museum exhibition The Royal Hunt: Courtly Pursuits in Indian Art[1] and this originated from the same smith as the two mentioned above: Haji Sha’ban. A fourth was sold by me in New York in 2018.[2]