A Silver Dagger, Turkey or India, 17th-18th Century
Auction Closed
April 29, 12:32 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
the slightly curved double-edged blade of watered steel, the silver hilt of typical ‘capital-I’ form, bands at the base and pommel carved with a simple vegetal pattern, the central band decorated en-suite with perforated silver, the grip faceted, the pommel set with a large, flat red stone surrounded by the same simple vegetal pattern, the silver-covered wooden scabbard decorated en-suite with upturned chape bud.
33cm.
Philippe Missillier Collection no.47C
H. Ricketts and P. Missillier, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris: Acte-Expo, 1988, p.34, no.35
The form and decoration of this dagger, with the ‘capital-I’ hilt and the silver decoration, usually indicates an Ottoman origin, and it was published in Splendeur des Armes Orientales as Ottoman eighteenth century. However, the hilt form spread widely across the Islamic world and was widely adopted in India. A dagger of the same size in the collection of the Maharaja of Jaipur (inv. no.MJM20.1769) is fitted with a green jade of hilt of closely comparable form (Robert Elgood, Arms and Armour at the Jaipur Court, New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2015, p.58, no.33). Another hilt of this type in black jade is in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi (Robert Skelton, ‘Islamic and Mughal Jades’ in Roger Keverne, Jade, London: Anness Publishing, 1995, p.288). Another dagger hilt of this form executed in silver, attributed to South India and dated to the eighteenth or nineteenth century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no.36.25.764a, b.
The curved tip of the scabbard on the example offered here is also more Indian than Ottoman in style: Turkish daggers of this form usually have a bulbous finial on the scabbard. Nevertheless, the use of silver to cover the hilt and scabbard remains unusual on this form of dagger in India. The attribution therefore includes both possibilities.
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