A Mughal Jade-Hilted Dagger in the Form of a Nilgai, India, 17th Century

Philippe Missillier Collection no.8C

H. Ricketts and P. Missillier, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris: Acte-Expo, 1988, p.98, no.160

Mughal emperors were frequently depicted hunting the nilgai, or blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus), known to be a shy animal. Aurangzeb was painted shooting nilgai at night by Bichitr dating from circa 1660 (Chester Beaty Library, Dublin, inv. no.11A.27; Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Painting from the Chester Beatty Library, 2 vols, London: Scorpion Cavendish, 1995, volume 1, pp. 490-2, 498, colour pl.75), and a folio from the St Petersburg Album dating from circa 1680 depicts him seated in a palanquin approaching a group of male and female nilgai (Royal Ontario Museum, inv. no.924.12.146; Francesca von Habsburg (project conception), The St Petersburg Muraqqa’: Album Of Indian and Persian Miniatures from the 16^th through the 18^th Century and Specimens of Persian Calligraphy by ‘Imad al-Hasani, Lugano: ARCH Foundation, 1996, p.121, pl.222).

Within the Mughal corpus of zoomorphic jade hilts, the nilgai is a rare form. From paintings in the royal Padshahnama manuscript commissioned for Shah Jahan, it can be seen that such daggers were worn by some of the most pre-eminent figures at the court, including the princes Dara Shikoh and Shah Shuja’ (Milo Cleveland Beach and Ebba Koch, King of the World: The Padshahnama, London: Azimuth Editions, 1997, p.56). The lily, carved at the guard and shown with protruding stamens, has a long poetic association with daggers and blades owing to the sharp and elegant form of its petals.

A fine hilt in the form of a nilgai is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 1985.58a, b). A further dagger with the jade hilt carved as a nilgai was in the Al Thani Collection (Amin Jaffer (editor), Beyond Extravagance, New York: Assouline, 2019, pp.154-5, no.125) Another dagger with a jade hilt in the form of a Nilgai was sold in these rooms, 1 April 2009, lot 135.