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Lot Essay
The signature on the scabbard reads: ''amal-e naqqash Mohammed Yusuf'.
The British diplomat James Burnes visited the Sindi court and wrote a portrait of the Emirs which was published in 1829. The Emirs were famous connoisseurs of fine weapons and horses, 'The Amirs have agents in Persia, Turkey and Palestine for the purchase of swords and gun-barrels, and they possess a more valuable collection of these articles than is probably to be met with in any other part of the world.' Burnes also records that two Persian goldsmiths were employed in the royal workshops as enamellers and jewellers and that 'the art of enlaying letters of gold on steel has been brought to the greatest perfection by these artisans'. The taste displayed by the present scabbard with its large expanses of plain gold ground around the floral sprays was one which was popular in Persia at the court of Fath 'Ali Shah in the first third of the 19th century. Another scabbard displaying this taste is part of the Iranian Crown Jewels (Meen, V.B. and Tushingham, A.D.: Crown Jewels of Iran, Toronto, 1968, p.90).
The British diplomat James Burnes visited the Sindi court and wrote a portrait of the Emirs which was published in 1829. The Emirs were famous connoisseurs of fine weapons and horses, 'The Amirs have agents in Persia, Turkey and Palestine for the purchase of swords and gun-barrels, and they possess a more valuable collection of these articles than is probably to be met with in any other part of the world.' Burnes also records that two Persian goldsmiths were employed in the royal workshops as enamellers and jewellers and that 'the art of enlaying letters of gold on steel has been brought to the greatest perfection by these artisans'. The taste displayed by the present scabbard with its large expanses of plain gold ground around the floral sprays was one which was popular in Persia at the court of Fath 'Ali Shah in the first third of the 19th century. Another scabbard displaying this taste is part of the Iranian Crown Jewels (Meen, V.B. and Tushingham, A.D.: Crown Jewels of Iran, Toronto, 1968, p.90).