- 146
A knife with lac-inlaid decoration of animals and birds, North India, probably Moradabad, circa 1770
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description
- Brass and Steel
- 38.5cm.
brass hilt chased with scenes of birds and animals in watery and wooded landscapes, inlaid with lac, plain steel blade
Provenance
Spink & Son Ltd., London
Acquired in 1974
Acquired in 1974
Exhibited
Victoria and Albert Museum, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, London, 1982
Literature
London 1982, no.427
Catalogue Note
"The steel blade has traces of silver on the bolster. Its hilt is of chased brass decorated with various birds, animals and plants in landscapes divided by streams, horizontally on one side and diagonally on the other. Such landscapes are more usually found in koftgari and Lucknow enamelled hilts." Robert Skelton in The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1982, p.132.
A knife with similar decoration is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.