Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 160Ф,Y
An ivory and gilt brass hilted Officer's Sabre in the Tipu style Anglo-Indian, circa 1800
21 April 2015, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £31,250 inc. premium
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An ivory and gilt brass hilted Officer's Sabre in the Tipu style
Anglo-Indian, circa 1800
Anglo-Indian, circa 1800
the hilt of gilded brass with ivory grip, the hilt embellished with eight tiger-face plaques of possible Seringapatam origin, the pommel in the shape of a tiger's head cast in the round decorated with engraved pseudo-bubri marks and punching, the knuckle-guard chain held in a pin between the tiger's teeth extending to the front quillon, the single-edged European blade curved and fullered, original wooden scabbard with black and red leather covering, slotted fittings of gilt brass engraved en suite with the hilt-guard
the blade 89.2 cm. long
the blade 89.2 cm. long
Footnotes
Provenance:
Removed from Loughton, County Offaly, Ireland, the family seat of the first and second Barons Bloomfield; believed to have been in the collection of Benjamin, first Baron Bloomfield (1768-1846), and thence by descent until sold in London in 1982;
Robin Wigington collection, the Arms and Armour Museum, Stratford-upon-Avon;
Private collection, acquired Sotheby's, The Tipu Sultan Sale, 25th May 2005, lot 1.
Published:
Wigington, Robin, 'Souvenir Weaponry from Seringapatam' in The Journal of the Arms & Armour Society, vol. XV, no. 3, March 1996, pp. 146-147 and fig. 3
This sword was made for an officer who, having failed to acquire an entire sword from the Seringapatam loot, was forced to incorporate such small tiger-face plaques as he could find into the hilt of an otherwise entirely European-style sabre. Indeed, apart from these exotic 'Tipuesque' fittings, the sabre adheres entirely to British military fashions of the early 19th Century. The engraved tiger stripes on the pommel, with their 'seagull-wing' shape, are an imaginative but incorrect attempt to recreate the bubri stripe which was so distinctively a part of Tipu's royal symbolism.
Benjamin Bloomfield, who is believed to have been a previous owner of this sword, was Private Secretary to George IV from 1817-1822, and ennobled in 1825. He was charged with curbing the King's excessive spending, which led to estrangement from the monarch. A portrait of Benjamin Bloomfield at the coronation of George IV is in the National Portrait Gallery, London (acc. no. NPG D31893).