MUGHAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

Dress daggers were among the most treasured objects of the Mughal prince or courtier. Cary Welch’s examination of courtly figures in the Windsor Padshanama demonstrated that the small number of daggers with animal hilts were reserved for the use of princes, such as Dara Shikoh and Shah Shuja, as well as a few senior dignitaries (Stuart Cary Welch et. al., The Emperors’ Album. Images of Mughal India, New York, 1987, pp.132-3, no.26). Bashir Mohamed writes that the tradition of hilts of jade, rock crystal or ivory in the in the form of rams, deer, lions or stallions is a testimony to a former pastoral existence (The Arts of the Muslim Knight. The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Milan, 2007, p.142). A related dagger, also with a hilt in the form of a nilgai, was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2013, lot 169.