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As part of the Serbian cultural heritage, these objects indicate the military-technical and socio-economic development of the Serbs in general. The Collection of Weapons comprises valuable material not only for the study and representation of the Serbian past, but also for a better understanding of the military history of the countries of their origin. The sabers are classified according to which branch of the army used them (infantry, cavalry, artillery) and their provenance (Austrian, Russian, Hungarian, Prussian.). Of particular interest are officers’ sabers, the heraldry of which enables us to trace various processes in the constitution of the state as well as dynastic changes. The mass-produced cold steel arms mostly comprise swords, sabers, knives, bayonets, etc. Certainly, rifles predominate and cover various types and models, including muzzle-loaders, percussion guns, single-shoot and repeating breech-loaders, as well as modern automatic weapons. The firearms include all types of shooting arms – pistols, revolvers, rifles, carbines, machine-guns and heavy machine-guns, and automatic rifles. The majority date from the mid-19th to the end of the 20th century, and were used by the Serbian, later the Yugoslav Army while just as extensive is that part of the collection consisting of weapons used by neighbouring or enemy armies. Aesthetically speaking, for their extreme beauty and the matchless skill of the craftsmanship, the yataghans and Oriental swords, as well as of the „džeferdar” rifles, „ledenica” pistols and „Skadarka” kuburas, are especially to be noted.Īnother large and heterogeneous part of the collection includes mass-produced weapons closely related to important events of Serbian history: the Serbian-Ottoman War of 1876–1878, the Balkan Wars and both World Wars, as well as the wars which followed the disintegration of former Yugoslavia in 1991, etc. As the creative expression of a certain period, the motifs and styles testify to the past and the influence which religion had on artistic work and perception. Some pieces of handmade weaponry merit special attention because of their beauty and the variety of techniques employed in the decoration (intarsia with gold and silver wire, marquetry, inlay, niello, engraving, etc.). The shiny appearance of the „ledenica” makes it an exceptional example of elegance among pistols in general – an effect created by the silver plates which fully covered the wooden parts, and the careful decoration (casting and embossing). Many different types of pistols are represented in the collection: in addition to the „ledenica”, „šilja”, „prizrenac” and „zlatka”, there is the „kubura” (an old-fashioned type of pistol), produced in Peć, Foča and Shkoder. The Oriental types of firearms are represented by a rifle called the „shishana”, and its domestic variant, the so-called „paragun”, as well as a flintlock musket called the „tvrdjavka” or „dupovka”. The „džeferdar” is the most luxuriant, with mother-of-pearl plated butt.
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The firearms produced in local workshops are mostly represented by the „arnautka” type of rifle, a flintlock gun with a T-shaped butt (Western European provenance), including all of its variants: the „džeferdar”, „čibuklija”, and „rašak” („krdžalinka”). The most valuable part of the collection are objects from the First and Second Serbian Uprisings, especially those belonging to Karadjordje and other military commanders, as well as other distinguished figures of the Serbian Revolution and creators of the modern Serbian state. The weapons made in local workshops are primarily of Balkan provenance, and date from the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains over 700 objects, divided into three parts: weapons of local workshop production, factory-produced weapons and military equipment. The Collection of Weapons and Military Equipment is one of the basic collections at the Historical Museum of Serbia.