cptbob
Well-known member
A few weeks ago I posted some photos of an 1871 cavalry carbine that I recently acquired. The carbine has a little mystery associated with it that maybe someone can help with. On one side of the stock there is a silver dragon and on the other side 4 Asian characters. Steve (seagull) was kind enough to provide the following (Thanks Steve!)
"Bob, the top three characters are not so difficult but I could not get the fourth (bottom) one. The top two say "Tianjin" or, in the old way "Tientsin", the third one is "Shun", meaning variously, "with/following/order/obey". I read mostly Japanese and these must be Chinese, so I could not ID the fourth one. In Japanese it is a combination of two radicals, the left side meaning "me/oneself" and the right side being an honorific. In Japanese this combination just doesn't exist. "
This suggests that either the rifle or a previous owner had been to Tientsin. Maybe someone could help complete the translation and shed some light on what it could mean. Thanks!!
"Bob, the top three characters are not so difficult but I could not get the fourth (bottom) one. The top two say "Tianjin" or, in the old way "Tientsin", the third one is "Shun", meaning variously, "with/following/order/obey". I read mostly Japanese and these must be Chinese, so I could not ID the fourth one. In Japanese it is a combination of two radicals, the left side meaning "me/oneself" and the right side being an honorific. In Japanese this combination just doesn't exist. "
This suggests that either the rifle or a previous owner had been to Tientsin. Maybe someone could help complete the translation and shed some light on what it could mean. Thanks!!