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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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