SIGNED MUHAMMAD BAQIR MASHHADI, INDIA, DATED AH 1163/1749-50 AD

Details

A GOLD INLAID WATERED STEEL BLADE
SIGNED MUHAMMAD BAQIR MASHHADI, INDIA, DATED AH 1163/1749-50 AD
The gently curving single-edged blade worked in finely watered steel, one side with gold inlaid cusped medallion and cartouche, one giving the name of the patron and the date, a small square inlaid cartouche to the left and a further gold inlaid cartouche at the chape giving the name of the maker and repeating the date, with later English silver hilt
Blade 32¼in. (82cm.) long

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Lot Essay

The inscription in the larger medallion reads nasr min Allah wa fath qarib. That in the smaller gives the name of the patron as Safdar Jang Bahadur.

An identical blade made by Muhammad Baqir Mashhadi for the Mughal Vizier Safdar Jang Bahadur, governor of Oudh from 1739 to 1756, and dated 1750 AD is in the Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection. Three other blades signed by this maker are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Nour Foundation (Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight, Milano, 2007, p. 85, cat. 49).

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