A FINE OTTOMAN DAGGER WITH GOLD-INLAID OPENWORK STEEL BLADE AND CARVED IVORY HILT, TURKEY, 16TH CENTURY

Ex-collection Le Page, Paris, since late 19^th century. 

The Le Page family were prestigious French firearms manufacturers, founding their company in 1717 in Paris, remaining in the same family until 1913. The family counted Kings Louis XV, XVI, XVIII and Napolean Bonaparte among their patrons. Initially called Pigny, the company was known as Le Page, Le Page Moutier and finally, Fauré Le Page in 1865.

Combining stylistic elements from the imperial kitabkhane (royal scriptorium) with the technical expertise of the finest blade-smith, this dagger is a superlative example of imperial Ottoman craftsmanship. 

The blade belongs to a small group of similarly-decorated pieces in museum collections around the world. It is highly likely that these blades were made by skilled Tabrizi craftsmen, taken back to Istanbul after the battle of Chaldiran in 1514. One dagger from this group is in the Topkapi Saray Museum, the hilt of which identifies it as having been made for Sultan Selim I in 1514-15 (Atil 1987, p.58, no.91), possibly produced to commemorate the battle of Chaldiran, since it includes the phrase feth-i Iran, ‘conquest of Iran’.

The hilt, whose shape is reminiscent of Ottoman mihrabs (prayer niches), is finely carved with interlacing floral tendrils and split-palmettes which are characteristic of the manuscripts produced under the rule of Mehmed II, notably the ‘Baba Nakkaş album’, a collection of designs, illumination and calligraphy dating to the end of Mehmed’s reign which provides evidence for a floral style influenced by Chinoiserie decoration, popular in Timurid Iran in the fifteenth century. Only seven similar finely carved ivory hilts are known, three of which are in the Turkish Armoury, Dresden (the closest being inv. nos.Y 130 and Y131) and considered "amongst the oldest holdings of the Türckische Cammer" (Schuckelt 2010, pp.58-59). Following comparisons with belt buckles and other objects in the Topkapi museum, these have been attributed to the fifteenth century. As Schuckelt notes, "even in the eminently privileged workshops of the Sultan's court in Istanbul ivory was a precious material" (ibid). The others are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no.269-1895), the British Museum, London (inv. no.OA-409), the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (inv. no.71.571), and the Furusiyya Foundation (Mohamed 2007, p.164, no.153). 

Other related blades are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no.C.208 and two in the Treasury of the Teutonic Order, Vienna, inv. nos.172 and 174. The latter two daggers were in the collection of Archduke Maximillian, one being presented to his brother Albert in around 1599. Both daggers are recorded in the Order’s inventory of 1619. A further example is in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, inv. no.E.7260. It is recorded in the Kunstkammer of Herzog Johann Friedrich (1582-1628) and was first noted in the inventory of 1616. Further comparable blades exist in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, inv. no.A.1890-280; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no.36.25.670; the Wallace Collection, London, inv. no.OA 1430; the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, inv. no.Y 0139 (presented as a gift to Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony by Emperor Matthias in 1617); the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, inv. no.MTW1143; the Stibbert Museum, Florence (Robinson 1975, no.106 b) and in a Danish collection (Copenhagen 1982, p.110, no.68).

The documented provenance of many of these pieces suggests that the goldsmiths in Istanbul’s imperial workshops were commissioned to produce a series of high-quality daggers, some if not all of which were intended to be presented to European rulers and members of the high nobility.