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Lot Essay
This exceptionally elegant and realistically carved ram's head dagger, is a fine example of the production of the Mughal court. The earliest reference to a zoomorphic hilt in Mughal art appears in a painting of Jamal Khan Qarawul by Murad, in the Kevorkian Album and dated to circa 1610-15 (Joseph M. Dye III, The Arts of India. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia, 2001, p.422, the painting published in Stuart Cary Welch et al, The Emperors' Album. Images of Mughal India, New York, 1987, pp.132-33, no.26). As Stuart Cary Welch writes, a look at the Padshahnama reveals that the most common form of dagger worn during the reign of Shah Jahan (1627-58) was the katar, followed closely by the khanjar. Of the khanjars depicted in the manuscript however, there are only very few examples with animal-head hilts. One of the few examples depicted is a horse-headed dagger tucked into the sash of Dara-Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan, in a scene entitled 'The presentation of Prince Dara-Shikoh's wedding gifts', folio 72v (Milo Cleveland Beach and Ebba Koch, King of the World. A Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, London, 1997, no.14, pp.46-7). Welch suggests that it is only therefore after the reign of Shah Jahan that the trend for zoomorphic hilts proliferated (Stuart Cary Welch, India. Art and Culture 1300-1900, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, p. 258). Bashir Mohamed writes that the tradition of hilts of jade, rock crystal or ivory in the form of rams, deer, lions or stallions (as the following lot), is a testimony to a former pastoral existence (The Arts of the Muslim Knight. The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Milan, 2007, p.142).
The inventiveness and playfulness of the craftsmen at the Mughal court was boundless - there is even a rock crystal hilt known in the David Collection, formed as a camel head (The Indian Heritage. Court Life under Mughal Rule exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, p.128, no.407). The form of a ram's head is less frequently encountered than many animals, and this is a well observed and finely carved example. Others are in Al-Sabah Collection (Manuel Keene, Treasury of the World. Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals, exhibition catalogue, London, 2001, p.99 and 103, nos. 8.16 and 8.23). For a Mughal dagger carved in the form of a horse-head, please see the following lot.
The inventiveness and playfulness of the craftsmen at the Mughal court was boundless - there is even a rock crystal hilt known in the David Collection, formed as a camel head (The Indian Heritage. Court Life under Mughal Rule exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, p.128, no.407). The form of a ram's head is less frequently encountered than many animals, and this is a well observed and finely carved example. Others are in Al-Sabah Collection (Manuel Keene, Treasury of the World. Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals, exhibition catalogue, London, 2001, p.99 and 103, nos. 8.16 and 8.23). For a Mughal dagger carved in the form of a horse-head, please see the following lot.