Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
A Mughal gem-set glass-hilted dagger and scabbard, India, 18th century
Auction Closed
October 26, 12:30 PM GMT
Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
the double-edged steel blade with central ridge and swollen tip, the green-glass hilt with scroll quillons and rounded pommel, inlaid with gold and gem-stones with scrolling stems issuing buds and lotus blossoms, bordered by feathered foliate bands along the outer edges and to the quillons, ensuite gem-set decoration to the chape and locket of the velvet-covered scabbard, enamelled suspension loop to the lock
39.4cm.
This exquisite dagger is most likely to have been produced in the Deccan or for a Deccani patron. The dark emerald-coloured green glass inlaid with rubies and diamonds relates closely to the green enamelled objects produced in Hyderabad in the Deccan during the later half of the eighteenth century. For other similarly decorated objects from Hyderabad from this period see a green enamelled paan box set (sold in these rooms, 9 October 2013, lot 241) a pair of gem-set and green enamelled parrots all formerly in the collection of the Nizam of Hyderabad (Beijing 2018, p.242, no.154; Christie's New York, 19 June 2019, lot 140).
The distinctive floral gem-set decoration seen on the hilt, locket and chape closely compares with an eighteenth-century dagger from the Powis collection that was listed in the inventory of Lord Clive's collection in 1766, 1774 and 1775 (see Archer 1987, p.42, no.18). See also Hales 2013 p.35, no.81 for a late seventeenth-century green enamelled dagger with similar decoration.