14 Persian Inscription on Gun Barrel

©Collection Robin Wigington TR29

On Flintlock Pistol, made for Tipu Sultan Steel, with gold (damascened) decoration, including a tiger mark, bubris and Persian quatrains. Signed and dated: Seringapatam; Sanah 1226; 1797/98 A.D. Barrel 22.8 cm

		ipu took a keen interest in the production of these firearms, and established at Seringapatam 11 armouries for making and finishing small arms; 4 large arsenals and 3 buildings housing machines for boring guns. There were machines at Ramgherry, Bangalore and Conkanely which bored as many as 50 musket-barrels simultaneously and at Bangalore, Robert Home records "a mint, a foundry for brass cannon, a machine for boring them, another for musket barrels, which will bore a hundred and thirty at once, an arsenal for military stores, and magazines for grain and gunpowder." Buchanan, in his survey of Mysore, gives a detailed account of the processes for smelting iron ore, for which Tipu paid the workmen 3 Fanams a Maund or 9s 3� d per hundred-weight. 'He gave them great employment,' observed Buchanan, 'as he made his shot of this iron, by hammering.' Tipu's splendid firearms were sometimes used as diplomatic gifts, as in 1798, when the 'five French chiefs' were presented with 1 matchlock and 4 guns. The British also held Tipu's firearms in high esteem, and George IV, when Prince Regent, appointed agents to search the London salerooms for Tipu pieces to display in his 'Armory' at Carlton House. A pair of European pistols were presented to Tipu by Lord Cornwallis during the formalities accompanying the signing of the peace treaty at the end of the third Mysore War. These same pistols, found at Seringapatam in 1799, were then presented by the Prize Committee to the British Commander in Chief, Lord Harris. After the Fall of Seringapatam, one of Tipu's finest guns was presented to Lord Cornwallis, in recognition of his long and dedicated service in India.