Oriental Arms

Caucasian arms and armour embody the centuries - long experience and skulls of oriental armourers, enriched , as it is , by long - standing traditions of outstanding craftsmanship. Adorned with most varied decorations , artistically and technically superbly accomplished, Caucasian weaponry constitutes a truly unique phenomenon in the history of the material aesthetic culture of oriental peoples. The most widespread material used for the adornment of weaponry was silver, highly valued by Caucasian silver -smiths. Caucasian pistols and guns, despite the simple technology of their manufacture, were of excellent constructional design and high firing power. Organized inthe seventeenth century , the manufacture of firearms attained high degree of perfection already by the end of the eighteenth, with Caucasian pistols and rifles gaining well- earned fame and popularity throughout the Orient. Caucasian firearms, too, were sumptuously and lavishly decorated : the barrels wre adorned with gold damescening , the gunstocs, straight and narrow, were made of plane - tree an nut - tree wood, were inlaid with bone, silver, or woods of different species. The bands, used to secure the barreland stock together , were often made of solid silver with engraving and nielloing. The inscribed manes of the gunsmith and owner of the weapon, enclosed in decorative cartouches , served as and elegant addition to the artistic ornamentation of the piece. In the late nineteen’s and early twentieth centuries Caucasian armourers produced a special kind of cavalry sword, the so-called «shashka», or «long knife», resembling a sabre but with the blade only slightly curved and without a cross-guard. Quite varied is belonging to the period of the late Middle Ages: hauberks, breastplates, armlets, leggings and greaves, shields and sabres, all kinds of halberds and helmets. Used by Caucasian warriors, such weaponry was both imported and made in the Caucasus.