A FINE WATERED STEEL DAGGER
Details
A FINE WATERED STEEL DAGGER (PESHKABZ) WITH JADE ‘PISTOL-GRIP' HILT AND GOLD-MOUNTED SCABBARD
INDIA, 18TH CENTURY
The tapering, single-edged straight watered steel blade with broad flattened back, the pale grey-green jade hilt carved with a vegetal pattern and set with rubies and emeralds in gold sockets arranged in floral patterns, the wooden scabbard covered with red velvet and fitted with carved gold mounts on which bezel-set rubies and emeralds are fixed, with thread and metal-thread cord ending in a tassel
16in. (40.6cm.) long in scabbard
Provenance:
By repute, Private UK collection Collection of Howard Ricketts, 2006
Lot Essay:
The ‘pistol-grip' jade hilt is an unusual feature of these fine peshkabz-style daggers, which are more conventionally fitted with horn, ivory or rock crystal hilts of a form described by Salam Kaoukji as “slightly beaked” (Salam Kaoukji, Precious Indian Weapons, London, 2017, p. 255). A peshkabz with a grey-green jade hilt of this form is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (36.25.700a, b). The form of the hilt by the forte, which resembles that on the ‘slightly beaked' hilt form, suggests that the present ‘pistol-grip' hilt was nevertheless made for a peshkabz dagger.
Details
A FINE WATERED STEEL DAGGER (PESHKABZ) WITH JADE ‘PISTOL-GRIP' HILT AND GOLD-MOUNTED SCABBARD
INDIA, 18TH CENTURY
The tapering, single-edged straight watered steel blade with broad flattened back, the pale grey-green jade hilt carved with a vegetal pattern and set with rubies and emeralds in gold sockets arranged in floral patterns, the wooden scabbard covered with red velvet and fitted with carved gold mounts on which bezel-set rubies and emeralds are fixed, with thread and metal-thread cord ending in a tassel
16in. (40.6cm.) long in scabbard
Provenance:
By repute, Private UK collection Collection of Howard Ricketts, 2006
Lot Essay:
The ‘pistol-grip' jade hilt is an unusual feature of these fine peshkabz-style daggers, which are more conventionally fitted with horn, ivory or rock crystal hilts of a form described by Salam Kaoukji as “slightly beaked” (Salam Kaoukji, Precious Indian Weapons, London, 2017, p. 255). A peshkabz with a grey-green jade hilt of this form is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (36.25.700a, b). The form of the hilt by the forte, which resembles that on the ‘slightly beaked' hilt form, suggests that the present ‘pistol-grip' hilt was nevertheless made for a peshkabz dagger.
