Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 130
A brass shield possibly from the armoury of Hyder Ali (d. 1782) South India, 18th Century
12 November 2024, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £25,600 inc. premium
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A brass shield possibly from the armoury of Hyder Ali (d. 1782)
South India, 18th Century
South India, 18th Century
of circular convex form with upturned rim and applied central ring, mounted with four bosses, engraved and decorated with a central rosette surrounded by concentric bands of geometric and vegetal motifs and an inscription in Kannada, the bosses with rosettes, four suspension loops to reverse.
31.9 cm. diam.
31.9 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Inscriptions: ಹೆ || ಕೂಡ್ಲಿಗಿಹಿ ||, Hai//Kodligihi
The inscription on the present lot is in Kannada, in a style dating to the 18th/ 19th century, and bears a similarity to those found on arms and armour from the Mysore Palace armoury with the Sri Krishna, for Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar III (1794-1868). Krishna Raja Wodeyar III was the twenty second Maharaja of Mysore who ruled for nearly seventy years and took inventory of the armoury, marking the pieces with serial numbers and labels. These were proceeded by his name, 'Sri Krishna'. An example of a dagger with the Sri Krishna is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Accession No. 2022.464a, b). The style of the inscription on our shield is very similar, and indicates that it was almost certainly part of the Mysore Palace armoury. The word Kodhligihi may derive from Kodli, meaning axe or hatchet, and could be the name given to the shield by the Maharaja. The 'hai' preceding this is found, often in Farsi, on other weapons associated with Hyder Ali in the Mysore Armoury. It has therefore been suggested that the inclusion of 'hai' on the present lot indicates that the shield was in the armoury of Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan, and later Maharaja Krishna Raja Wodeyar III, who marked the piece with the inscription.
Hyder Ali (c. 1720 – 7 December 1782) was a soldier who rose through the ranks of the Mysore army to the point where he was able to establish himself as de facto ruler by 1761, usurping the brothers Nanjaraj and Devraj in 1752. He fought against the British East India Company during the First and Second Anglo–Mysore Wars, and was the innovator of military use of the iron-cased Mysorean rockets. His eldest son and successor was the 'Tiger of Mysore', Tipu Sultan.