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A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar) India, 17th-19th Century(2) image 1
A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar) India, 17th-19th Century(2) image 2
A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar) India, 17th-19th Century(2) image 3
A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar) India, 17th-19th Century(2) image 4
A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar) India, 17th-19th Century(2) image 5
A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar) India, 17th-19th Century(2) image 6
Lot 139

A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar)
India, 17th-19th Century
(2)

22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,816 inc. premium

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A gold koftgari steel sword (tulwar) and dagger (katar)
India, 17th-19th Century

the tulwar with watered-steel curving single-edged blade with flattened spine, chiselled and decorated in gold overlay to both sides with hunting scenes, the blued-steel hilt of typical form, decorated in gold overlay with foliate borders and chevrons, the quillons with rosettes, the wood scabbard clad in purple velvet; the katar with tapering double-edged European blade with markings to one side, the forte with applied foliate section to each side, engraved and decorated in gold overlay with floral scrollwork, the hilt of typical form, the sidebars and crossguard with pierced beaded edges, the grips of baluster form with free moving beads to the interstices, engraved and decorated in gold overlay with floral scrollwork
the tulwar 91.9 cm. long(2)

Footnotes

Provenance
Christie's, Fine Antique Arms and Armour, 20 November 1991, lot 129 (part lot).

European blades imported from Germany, France, Spain, Italy Portugal and England became important trade items due to their popularity in India following the arrival of Europeans. They were utilised because of their enhanced practicality over Indian-made blades (see Robert Hales, Islamic and Oriental Arms and Armour, A Lifetime's Passion, London, 2013, p. 50, No. 108).

For a comparable Deccani seventeenth century katar with similar beads, see Howard Ricketts, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris, 1988, p. 80, no. 129. For an example sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Eastern Arms & Armour from the Richard R. Wagner Jr. Collection, 29 April 2015, lot 93. A tulwar with comparable hilt decoration was sold in these rooms, Bonhams, Forged in Faith, 21 May 2024, lot 35.

Additional information