A Mughal Mottled Jade Dervish Crutch hilt (zafar takieh), India, 18th/19th Century

composed of a grey, freckled jade stone, carved with two addorsed blackbuck heads, each with long horns and rope harness, with a stylised leaf-form in the centre, mounted on a plexiglass stand

In overall good condition, very small chip near edge, as viewed.
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The zoomorphic carvings of the Mughal era find great expression in jade, rock crystal and ivory crutch handles and dagger hilts. These sculptural figures often took the form of ram's or horse's heads that varied in quality and decorative value; some are adorned with jewels, whilst others are left plain.

The present zafar takiya or crutch head, can be compared with two crutch heads in the al-Sabah Collection, one with addorsed rams' heads (inv. no. LNS 213 HS) and the other carved with strikingly similar blackbuck heads (inv. no. LNS 633 HS). The first one was published in Kuwait 2001, p.99, no.8.15 and the second in Art from the Islamic Civilization from The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, Milan, 2010, p.302, no.282. The present piece is remarkable for the quality of its naturalistic carving, particularly in the details of the blackbucks' long, twisted horns.

The carved harness reflects the way in which the domestic animal would have been tethered, as shown on a slightly earlier, seventeenth-century miniature of a blackbuck being led by its keeper, signed by the celebrated artist Manohar, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. IM 134-1921), illustrated in Stronge 2002, p.137, pl.102.