The Conservation of an Ottoman Egyptian Percussion Muzzleloader

This study discusses the analysis and conservation of an Ottoman muzzleloader from the museum of the Faculty of Applied Arts, Helwan University (fig 1). It is a composite material which includes a wooden handle/stock embellished with silver pierced openwork fixed to the wood with silver nails and an incised silver butt-plate decorated with niello. The barrel is fluted and decorated with gilded floral patterns, a Quranic verse and a date 1271A.H. During cleaning the original Ottoman Egyptian silver hallmarks were recovered including an official standard for the purity of silver 80% and a monogram signature (tughra) of the reigning ruler. Non-destructive analyses of metal parts were performed using a portable X-ray Fluorescence while the silver and iron corrosion products were analyzed using X-ray diffraction. Further analyses of the silver was made possible by analyzing a detached silver nail using environmental ESEM+ EDS. FTIR was used to verify the presence of adhesives used for the application of gilding onto the steel barrel. The conservation was performed without disassembling the muzzleloader using minimum possible intervention due to the composite nature of the firearm.