An exceptional miquelet lock Cossack pistol dating: 18th Century provenance: Caucasia, Round, smoothbore barrel with thin central rib and nozzle with moulded muzzle. Visible surface with koftgari gold inlays depicting floral motifs. The wide iron tang continues up to the pommel and is decorated with a gold garland. Elegant, iron flintlock with an Arabic mark, completely decorated with gold floral motifs. Walrus ivory stock (some small restorations), the beautiful porosity of the walrus ivory is clearly visible; the surface decorated with yellow-gold and silver inlays depicting floral motifs (missing parts). Spherical pommel completely covered with finely engraved and niello silver-foil depicting floral and geometric motifs on a granulated and gilded background. The two barrel brackets and the final hilt near the nozzle are covered with silver foil decorated en suite. Spherical trigger made of partially gilded metal. With an antique, partially-engraved leather spark-arrester behind the lock. Screws with gold decorations. Manufactured without the ramrod slot, like all this kind of pistols. Ring for the strap. A very rare pistol featuring a stock almost entirely made of walrus tooth, a material often used to manufacture the highest-quality cold weapons and pistols in the Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire. Although a significant number of guns made from marine ivory during the 18th and 19th centuries are known, relatively few have survived intact and can be found in museums such as the Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.See another extremely similar pistol, most probably a work of the same gunsmith, conserved in the 'Wallace Collection', inv. no. OA2020. length 40.5 cm.