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Lot 210*

A jade-hilted gold koftgari steel sword (Shamshir)
North India, 19th Century

25 October 2021, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£4,000 - £6,000

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A jade-hilted gold koftgari steel sword (Shamshir)
North India, 19th Century

the double-edged watered steel blade of serrated curved form, engraved near the forte to one side with two pseuso-inscription-filled cartouches surrounded by vegetal decoration, the green jade hilt of pistol form carved with a floral motif near the forte and floral tendrils to the pommel, the cross-guard decorated in gold koftgari with pseudo-inscriptions, the wood scabbard clad in woven wool with steel mounts decorated ensuite in gold koftgari
92.5 cm. long

Footnotes

Provenance
Dr Thomas Ewart Marston (1905-1984), curator of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature art at Yale University Library.
Minna Marston, his wife, and thence by descent.

Dr Marston was elected trustee of the Yale University Library Association in 1933 and was the curator of Mediaeval and Renaissance literature at the library until his retirement in 1972. He had a BA from Yale and and MA and PhD from Harvard University. He was the author of Britain's Imperial Role in the Red Sea Area: 1800-1878 and co-author of The Vineland Map and the Tartar Relation.

For other lots from Dr Marston's collection previously sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 26th October 2020, lots 4-8.

Additional information