Lot Essay
Daggers were, like flywhisks, indicators of status. Almost every important figure in the crowded durbar scenes in the Padshahnama illustrations has at least one dagger or sword in his waistband, each rendered in great detail enabling identification of the different types relatively easy. We can therefore determine that the "pistol-grip" form of the hilt of the present dagger did not come in until the end of the seventeenth century. It appears to have been popularised by the emperor Aurangzeb. Although it has been suggested that the form came from the Deccan (Welch, S.C.: India, New York, 1985, no.202, p.303 and no.177, pp.270-1) it is more probable that it was a Mughal invention as argued by Sue Stronge in her caption to the entry for this dagger in Treasures from India (noted above, p.42).
One of the features of the Tuzuk-i Jahangiri (the memoirs of the reign of Jahangir) is that it comments regularly on the various gifts which passed in and out of the Imperial household. Possibly the most frequent of all is the gift of daggers which are often lovingly described. An examination of the illustrations to the Padshahnameh confirms that this practice continued in the next reign. A number show daggers being offered to the emperor as tribute (Beach, Milo Cleveland and Koch, Ebba: King of the World, London, 1997, pls. 8, 38 and 44 for example). The present dagger therefore to Lord Clive would have had considerably more significance than just that of an exquisitely crafted weapon. It is very probable that this was given to him from the Murshidabad treasury of Shuja al-Daula, who he had defeated at Plassey. As well as being valuable in its own right, it would have been a very appropriate item to form part of the tribute paid by the successor to Shuja al-Daula as Nawab of Bengal, Mir Jafar.
One of the features of the Tuzuk-i Jahangiri (the memoirs of the reign of Jahangir) is that it comments regularly on the various gifts which passed in and out of the Imperial household. Possibly the most frequent of all is the gift of daggers which are often lovingly described. An examination of the illustrations to the Padshahnameh confirms that this practice continued in the next reign. A number show daggers being offered to the emperor as tribute (Beach, Milo Cleveland and Koch, Ebba: King of the World, London, 1997, pls. 8, 38 and 44 for example). The present dagger therefore to Lord Clive would have had considerably more significance than just that of an exquisitely crafted weapon. It is very probable that this was given to him from the Murshidabad treasury of Shuja al-Daula, who he had defeated at Plassey. As well as being valuable in its own right, it would have been a very appropriate item to form part of the tribute paid by the successor to Shuja al-Daula as Nawab of Bengal, Mir Jafar.