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Country of Origin: Damascus
Syria in the Ottoman Empire
Date of Origin
Circa A.D.1550
JBOC Comments:
Auction Catalogue Description:
THE TIPU SULTAN
COLLECTION
SALE L05222 LOT 7
SESSION 1 | 25 May 05 10:30 AM.
LOCATION
London, New Bond Street
AN EXOTIC GEM-SET TROPHY SWORD, THE POMMEL TAKEN
FROM TIPU SULTAN'S REGALIA OF OFFICE AND MATCHING
THE FINIALS OF THE GOLD THRONE, SERINGAPATAM,
CIRCA 1782-93
50,000—70,000 GBP
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:
60,000 GBP
MEASUREMENTS
measurements note
blade 80.7cm.
DESCRIPTION
with fifteenth-century Mamluk or Ottoman
blade of true Damascus watered steel,
slightly curved, double-edged towards the point
and retaining traces of a series of cartouches
punched and engraved towards the base (patches of
light rust staining and the back edge slightly
reduced towards the point), silver-gilt hilt cast
in relief and further heightened by contrasting
punched matted segmental panels, including a pair
of shaped langets coming to an ogival point, a
pair of quillons formed as tiger's paws, and
shaped solid grip inset with a garnet front and
rear and richly decorated with crystal, rubies
and emeralds set within a bubri pattern, the
pommel formed as a tiger's head thickly encased
in gold on a wooden core, profusely decorated
with rubies and diamonds, the teeth formed of
diamonds and the tongue, eyes, whiskers and brow
all studded with rubies, finely punched in
imitation of a pelt and incorporating a basal
collar further studded with small rubies (one ear
slightly damaged), in its original scabbard
constructed in the neo-Indian taste, involving
facing panels of black leather enriched with gilt
flowers, large silver-gilt mounts formed with
openwork patterns matching the langets of the
hilt, inset with three calligraphic roundels
front and rear, engraved with a running pattern
of plantain leaves and flowerheads along the
edges, and with a running bubri pattern over the
full length of the borders
EXHIBITED
The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the
Scots in India 1760-1800, National Gallery of
Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999, cat. no. 9, Pl. 25 (A.
Buddle, P. Rohatgi and I.G. Brown)
Tigers round the Throne, the Court of Tipu Sultan
(1750-1799), Zamana Gallery, London, 1990, pp.
42-3
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Robin Wigington, Souvenir Weaponry from
Seringaparam, The Journal of the Arms &
Armour Society, vol. XV, no. 3, March 1996, Pl. 1
CATALOGUE NOTE
inscriptions
On the scabbard mounts, repeated six times:
Qur'an, surat al-saff (lxi), parts of 13
The pommel was evidently made to match the eight
larger tiger's head finials which surrounded the
rail of Tipu Sultan's celebrated gold throne. Two
finials are known to survive, one sold in these
rooms, 19 March 1973, lot 180, and another from
the collection of the second Lord Clive, now at
Powis Castle; see Mohammad Moienuddin, Sunset at
Srirangapatam, After the Death of Tipu Sultan,
New Delhi, 2000, p. 53, pl. 2
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