An important Mughal gem set jade Sword Hilt North India or Deccan, first half 18th Century (5)
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Find your local specialistAn important Mughal gem set jade Sword Hilt
North India or Deccan, first half 18th Century
North India or Deccan, first half 18th Century
the hilt 14.5 cm. long(5)
Footnotes
Provenance:
An Indian princely family.
This superb hilt relates to a number of dateable or dated items. These include a jewelled jade sword, also set with cabochon rubies and emeralds, and dated AH 1201/ AD 1786-7 that was presented to Claude Martin, a French adventurer who joined the service of the Army of the British East India Company in 1761. Fifteen years later, as a Major General, he was appointed superintendent of the Arsenal of the Nawab of Oudh at Lucknow. Nawab Asaf ud Daula presented Martin with a number of firearms inscribed to him, including the 1786-7 sword (Howard J. Ricketts, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, exhibition catalogue, 4th May-31st July 1988, p. 132 and no. 221).
This lot is contemporary with a jade-hilted dagger from the collection of Lord Clive. The Clive dagger is probably mentioned in the inventory of his collection in 1766 as "... 1 knife set with an Aggat Handle set with Diamonds and Rubies", and in 1774 as "A curious Dagger with jade handle mounted with Diamonds and Rubies & Emeralds set in Gold", and in the list of 1775 as "A Dagger with an Agate handle, set with Diamonds, Rubies and Emeralds". Both the Clive dagger and the present lot are mutton-fat jade with the same precious metal and jewel inlays, and share the distinctive feature of an emerald-inset cypress tree on the pommel and similarly set leaf design for the quillons, this time in rubies. Lord Clive, 1725-1774, was governor of Bengal and General of the East India Company's army in which Claude Martin served (Mildred Archer et al, Treasures from India; The Clive Collection of Powis Castle, London, 1987, no. 18, p. 42).
Further evidence for a date of manufacture in the first half of the 18th Century is provided by a portrait of Aurangzeb's grandson, Jahander Shah (re 1713), showing him with a comparable hilt with moulded finger grips (Skelton et al, p. 42).
This hilt, along with the accompanying gold fittings, were once part of a composite sword. This was common practice in the 19th Century.