Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Property from the Mohammed Khalil Collection
Lot 90*
A repoussé silver-hilted steel sword (kordhe) Epirus, Greece, late 18th/ early 19th Century
12 November 2024, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£6,000 - £8,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A repoussé silver-hilted steel sword (kordhe)
Epirus, Greece, late 18th/ early 19th Century
Epirus, Greece, late 18th/ early 19th Century
the single-edged steel blade of curved form with two fullers to upper edge, chiselled and decorated in gold overlay to the upper half with astronomical symbols, foliate motifs, figures and confronting quadrupeds, the silver hilt engraved and decorated with floral motifs and geometric designs and surmounted by perching birds, with articulated chain joining the pommel to the crossguard, the silver scabbard engraved and decorated with cartouches containing floral sprays and crossed weapons, interspersed by floral motifs, one side with a star motif, with two suspension loops with palmette covers
87.5 cm. long
87.5 cm. long
Footnotes
Provenance
Czerny's, Fine and Scarce Antique Arms and Armour, 26 March 2016, lot 530.
The Mohammed Khalil Collection.
Published
M. K. Ibrahim, Islamic Arms and Armour, Vol. I, United Arab Emirates, 2022, p. 369, cat. no. 138.
An Epirot sword with comparable hilt and scabbard inscribed 'To Lord Noel Gordon Byron, A. Mavrocordatos 4 January 1824' is illustrated in Robert Elgood, The Arms of Greece, and Her Balkan Neighbours in the Ottoman Period, London, 2009, p. 234, No. 298. A further similar example dated to the 18th/ 19th century with a 17th century blade is illustrated in the same publication (op. cit. p. 233, no. 295). For a kordhe sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Eastern Arms & Armour from the Richard R. Wagner Jr. Collection, 29 April 2015, lot 57.