A GEM SET JADE HILTED DAGGER

NORTH INDIA, 1620-1640

Details

A GEM SET JADE HILTED DAGGER
NORTH INDIA, 1620-1640
The hilt with split pommel and set with rubies and emeralds decorated with two birds and floral sprays on each side, the tip of the hilt in a v-shape design also gem set, watered-steel blade, later associated wooden scabbard with gilt copper fittings
14 7/8 ins. (27.8 cm.) long; scabbard 11 ins. (28 cm.) long

Provenance

Christie’s, London, 26 April 2012, lot 299

Literature

Jaffer 2013, p.92, no.5

Exhibited

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2014, pp.28-29
Grand Palais, Paris 2017, p.108, no.80
The Doge’s Palace, Venice 2017, p.137, no.84
The Palace Museum, Beijing 2018, pp.160-61, no.88

Brought to you by

Rahul Kadakia

rkadakia@christies.com +1 212 636 2300

Lot Essay

The emperor Jahangir is seen wearing a dagger with such a pommel in two paintings from the Windsor Padshahnama (RCIN 1005025, ff. 43b and 192b). The second of these paintings shows a dagger also inlaid with a ruby at the centre of the guard. The facetted guard finds a direct comparable in the hilt seen on a dagger at The Hermitage, St Petersburg (Amsterdam, 1999, p. 283, cat. 286).

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