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Lot Essay
An inscription in devanagari script on the back of one of the plates bears both name of Maharaja Anup Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner (d. 1698), and a date which is hardly decipherable.
This coat of mail has a few known comparables with similar plates and buckles: one is in the Nasser D. Khalili collection, and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. MTW 1155, D. Alexander, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Arts, The Arts of War, London, 1992, pp. 160-62, fig. 100 and no. 2000.497, Arms and Armours, Notable Acquisitions, 1991-2002, The Metropolitan Museum, 2002, p. 41, ill. 37). A third similar example was sold at Sotheby's, 16 October 2002, lot 64.
Mail coats from this group all bear inscriptions on the plates that name Maharaja Anup Singh and indicate that they entered the armoury of Bikaner after they were taken as booty. Anup Singh was a general in the armies of Aurengzeb and is known to have led a series of victorious military campaigns in the Deccan in the 1680s and 1690s. The mail coat in the Khalili collection indicates in an inscription that it was taken during the siege of Adoni in 1689 where the 'Adilshahi dynasty was defeated. Therefore, it is most likely that this group of armours was produced in Bijapur, the then capital of 'Adilshahi dynasty.
This coat of mail has a few known comparables with similar plates and buckles: one is in the Nasser D. Khalili collection, and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. MTW 1155, D. Alexander, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Arts, The Arts of War, London, 1992, pp. 160-62, fig. 100 and no. 2000.497, Arms and Armours, Notable Acquisitions, 1991-2002, The Metropolitan Museum, 2002, p. 41, ill. 37). A third similar example was sold at Sotheby's, 16 October 2002, lot 64.
Mail coats from this group all bear inscriptions on the plates that name Maharaja Anup Singh and indicate that they entered the armoury of Bikaner after they were taken as booty. Anup Singh was a general in the armies of Aurengzeb and is known to have led a series of victorious military campaigns in the Deccan in the 1680s and 1690s. The mail coat in the Khalili collection indicates in an inscription that it was taken during the siege of Adoni in 1689 where the 'Adilshahi dynasty was defeated. Therefore, it is most likely that this group of armours was produced in Bijapur, the then capital of 'Adilshahi dynasty.