A Persian Circular Steel Dhal, Three Indian Dhals, And An African Club, Mostly 19th Century

The first of convex form, with four bosses each with petalled border, the outer surface etched with four kneeling male figures in contemporary costume between flowering shrubs and pairs of birds, all within arcades and centred on a roundel etched with a bird of prey attacking a duck, the outer border etched with panels of calligraphy between narrow borders of foliage and arabesques; the second of circular convex form with four steel bosses each with pierced borders, the outer surfaces chased with designs of foliage within applied brass borders with cusped inner edges, the interior retaining its velvet-covered padded liner (one bracer missing), the other with old handwritten label inscribed 'Finely engraved Indian shield with ornamental bosses, 17th Century'; the third of brass and of similar form, with four bosses chased with foliage against a black enamel ground, the outer surface chased with two riders, a figure, a dragon, two deer and two birds, all amid foliage and against a red enamel ground, the central roundel and outer border pierced and chased with foliage, and retaining its velvet-covered pad; the fourth, probably Balochistan, of convex blackened leather, the outer surface set with conical brass bosses, crescents and roundels all punched with circular decoration, the cusped outer border en suite, the interior retaining its leather pad; the last, probably Zulu, of hardwood and of tapering circular section, decorated with four bands of plaited copper, brass and iron wire (5)
The first 46.3 cm. diam., the last 64.5 cm. long