Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 161*
A rare and fine Sword with bubri patterned watered blade from the Palace Armoury of Tipu Sultan Seringapatam, circa 1782-99
21 April 2015, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £230,500 inc. premium
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A rare and fine Sword with bubri patterned watered blade from the Palace Armoury of Tipu Sultan
Seringapatam, circa 1782-99
Seringapatam, circa 1782-99
the brass hilt cast in one piece, the pommel consisting of a tiger's head in the round, punched and engraved detail, bubri-patterns extending down the facetted grip, the quillons terminating in tiger-masks, one langet with bubri patterns and punched decoration, the other with a low-relief tiger-mask, the slender knuckle-guard terminating in a tiger-mask, the blade of curved sabre type, forged of watered steel formed into a repeating bubri pattern, later inlaid in gold on either side with the two-part inscription: No Me Embaines Sin Honor/ No Me Saques Sin Razon; the European scabbard and mounts of steel
the blade 77.8 cm. long; the whole 92.5 cm. long
the blade 77.8 cm. long; the whole 92.5 cm. long
Footnotes
Provenance:
Robin Wigington collection, the Arms and Armour Museum, Stratford-upon-Avon;
Private collection, acquired Sotheby's, The Tipu Sultan Sale, 25th May 2005, lot 6.
Published:
Wigington, Robin, "Souvenir Weaponry from Seringapatam" in The Journal of the Arms & Armour Society, vol. XV, no. 3, March 1996, pp. 143, 146 and fig. 2
This sword is unique among those with Seringapatam provenance with its watering in the form of Tipu's favoured bubri pattern. Such decorative patterning would have been the product of only the most highly-skilled swordsmiths, implying that this would have been a special, perhaps royal, commission. The exceptional quality of the blade suggests that it might have formed part of Tipu's personal treasury, comparable to the 'Bedchamber Sword' which was presented to General Baird in 1799 (Dix, Noonan and Webb, The Baird Jewels and Archive, 19th September 2003, pp. 79-81). Sword hilts with the tiger as their decorative theme, such as the present example, have been associated with the patronage or personal ownership of Tipu himself, with one supposedly taken from his body at the Fall of Seringapatam. Examples of this type can be found in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, the Clive Collection, Powis Castle, and the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (see Buddle, Anne, Tigers around the Throne. The Court of Tipu Sultan (1750-99), London, 1990, p.44); and other example were sold at Sotheby's (Arts of the Islamic World, 14th April 2010, lot 185 and Art of Imperial India, 9th October 2013, lot 249).
The later inlaid inscription, which can be translated as 'Draw me not without reason/ Sheath me not without honour', is commonly found on European swords from the 17th Century onwards.