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AN EXCEPTIONAL ANGLO-INDIAN SILVER-MOUNTED SABRE MADE FOR MAJOR-GENERAL CLAUDE MARTIN

LUCKNOW, CIRCA 1797

细节

AN EXCEPTIONAL ANGLO-INDIAN SILVER-MOUNTED SABRE MADE FOR MAJOR-GENERAL CLAUDE MARTIN
Lucknow, circa 1797
With massive curved single-edged hollow-ground blade, back-edged towards the clipped point, the forte damascened in gold with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions, mystical signs, stars, the sun and the moon, a tiger-mask and the date(?) 1173, and along the back the name 'Claude Martin', and stirrup hilt based on that of the British Light Cavalry sabre pattern of 1796, but made of horn partly faced with sheet silver decorated with bright-cut engraved foliage and repeated swags
34in. (86.4cm.) blade

来源

R.J. Wigington Collection

出版

H.L. Blackmore, 'General Claude Martin', The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, vol. 27, no. 1 (February, 1989), p. 11, plate 15

注意事项

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

拍品专文

Claude Martin (1735-1800) was born in Lyons, the son of a cooper. He served with the French army (1752-60), but deserted in India to join the British East India Company's forces. In 1776, now promoted to Captain, he was appointed superintendent of artillery and arsenals to the Nawab of Oudh, and in 1779 established the Lucknow Arsenal as a manufactory of arms, employing European and native armourers, eventually becoming a Major-General in 1796. A number of firearms produced there under his supervision survive, including those in the Royal Armouries, Leeds, and the National Army Museum, Chelsea, but this is the only known sword probably made there. It is perhaps the 'Curious Sword Silver Mounted' listed in his post-mortem inventory of 1801

Martin amassed great wealth which he spent on philanthropy and patronage of the arts, among the artists working in India he patronised being Chinnery, Renaldi and Zoffany (he is depicted in the last-named's 'Colonel Mordaunt's Cock-Match', now at Tate Britain, London). Today he is principally remembered for the three schools he founded (in Lyons, Lucknow and Calcutta) all bearing the name he gave them, 'La Martinière'

See Blackmore, op. cit., and W.E Andrews, Major-General Claude Martin, Lucknow, 1942