AN EXOTIC GEM-SET TROPHY SWORD, THE POMMEL TAKEN FROM TIPU SULTAN'S REGALIA OF OFFICE AND MATCHING THE FINIALS OF THE GOLD THRONE, SERINGAPATAM, CIRCA 1782-93

with fifteenth-century Mamluk or Ottoman blade of true Damascus watered steel, slightly curved, double-edged towards the point and retaining traces of a series of cartouches punched and engraved towards the base (patches of light rust staining and the back edge slightly reduced towards the point), silver-gilt hilt cast in relief and further heightened by contrasting punched matted segmental panels, including a pair of shaped langets coming to an ogival point, a pair of quillons formed as tiger's paws, and shaped solid grip inset with a garnet front and rear and richly decorated with crystal, rubies and emeralds set within a bubri pattern, the pommel formed as a tiger's head thickly encased in gold on a wooden core, profusely decorated with rubies and diamonds, the teeth formed of diamonds and the tongue, eyes, whiskers and brow all studded with rubies, finely punched in imitation of a pelt and incorporating a basal collar further studded with small rubies (one ear slightly damaged), in its original scabbard constructed in the neo-Indian taste, involving facing panels of black leather enriched with gilt flowers, large silver-gilt mounts formed with openwork patterns matching the langets of the hilt, inset with three calligraphic roundels front and rear, engraved with a running pattern of plantain leaves and flowerheads along the edges, and with a running bubri pattern over the full length of the borders

EXHIBITED

The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India 1760-1800, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999, cat. no. 9, Pl. 25 (A. Buddle, P. Rohatgi and I.G. Brown)
Tigers round the Throne, the Court of Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), Zamana Gallery, London, 1990, pp. 42-3

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Robin Wigington, Souvenir Weaponry from Seringaparam, The Journal of the Arms & Armour Society, vol. XV, no. 3, March 1996, Pl. 1

CATALOGUE NOTE

inscriptions
On the scabbard mounts, repeated six times:
Qur'an, surat al-saff (lxi), parts of 13

The pommel was evidently made to match the eight larger tiger's head finials which surrounded the rail of Tipu Sultan's celebrated gold throne. Two finials are known to survive, one sold in these rooms, 19 March 1973, lot 180, and another from the collection of the second Lord Clive, now at Powis Castle; see Mohammad Moienuddin, Sunset at Srirangapatam, After the Death of Tipu Sultan, New Delhi, 2000, p. 53, pl. 2