Flintlock pistol

In 1857, the Tunisian ambassador to the imperial court presented Emperor Franz Joseph with this pair of pistols (invs. A 1679, A 1680), a gift from his master Muhammad II al Hussain, the Bey of Tunis. The pistols were produced by Claude Bizouard, a gunsmith from Marseille, who signed them on the lock: BIZOUARD À MARSEILLE. Since the late eighteenth century, at least two generations of the Bizouard family had run a workshop for the production of firearms in that French port.

The barrels of both pistols are lavishly cut, engraved, gilt, and damascened in gold. The walnut stocks are inlaid with gold and silver wire. Butts and lockplate are studded with yellow brilliants. A gold and red silk tasselled cord is wound around the grips.

This precious gift from the Bey of Tunis, then still nominally under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan, reflected his difficult political situation. The dynasty into which Muhammad II was born had reigned over a de facto independent Tunis since 1705, but both France and the Ottoman Empire had emerged strengthened from the Crimean War, which had ended in 1856. France had colonized neighbouring Algeria in 1830, and the Bey was beginning to fear for his independence. In this situation he clearly deemed it a good idea to develop closer relations with Austria, a European power that had remained neutral in the Crimean War. The choice of a French gunsmith reflects France’s strong cultural influence in the Maghreb in the nineteenth century.