AUCTIONS IMPERIAL MAY 2024 ARMS AND ARMOR
Lot 214:
Description
A superior example of the type, the persiform hilt with leather-covered grip and steel guard and pommel heavily inlaid with gold and silver, with birds perched on a flower amongst foliage. The broad, very slightly-curved and multi-fullered heirloom blade wrought of fine, actively-grained black wootz, single-edged, with a radiused cutting tip and signed by the maker on the spine, WORK OF KHADJI MUHAMMAD. The leather-covered wooden scabbard with wire-wrapped seam and steel mounts inlaid with gold and silver en suite with the hilt. First half of the 19th century. Minor wear, inlay rubbed, scabbard split at the tip. A quite similar example belonging to the Caucasian Collection of the State Historical Museum, Moscow, appears in E.G. Astvatsaturian, Weapons of the Caucasian Peoples, St. Petersburg, Atlant Publishers, 2004, p. 335. Overall length 100 cm / 39 1/2". Condition III
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