Lot Essay
The mounts on this elegant sword are decorated in nielloed silver in a style fashionable during the seventeenth century. A number of similarly decorated published pieces are stamped with a tughra of Mehmed IV (r. 1648-87) and some exist in European collections, having been taken as war booty from the Ottomans after the siege of Vienna in 1683. The pieces decorated in this style and stamped with Mehmed IV's tughra include two horse caparisons, daggers and spears (Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight. The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Milan, 2007, no. 35, p.71). A number of examples which do not bear a tughra, but which can be dated with some accuracy on the basis of their dates of acquisition, are illustrated in Holger Schuckelt, Die Türckische Cammer. Sammlung orientalischer Kunst in der kurfürstlich-sächsischen Rüstkammer Dresden, exhibition catalogue, Dresden, 2010, no.254, p.249.
The very distinctive aesthetic of our mounts is achieved through a playful use of reserving gold floral decoration against nielloed ground and vice versa. The chape of our sword provides a good illustration of this. The upper register of the chape is decorated with large cusped roundels with silver gilt centres and reserved against a silver gilt ground. Below this there is a register of fleshy palmettes and flowerheads reserved against a nielloed ground. A sword in Dresden, dated to circa 1700, uses the same aesthetic on the locket of its sheath (Schuckelt, op.cit., no.254, pp.249 and 278). The nielloed decoration which takes the form of small sporadic floral scrolls which create a dense flurry of decoration, resembles that on the sheath of a dagger in Dresden (Schuckelt, op.cit., no.303, p.307). That is dated to the late 17th century. Although the stones which are set into them are probably added later, the gold cusped or tulips-shaped mounts on the locket and quillons of the sword relate to those which adorn a number of royal objects of the 17th century - some of which were given as diplomatic gifts, for example a richly inset flask given to Tsar Alexy Mikhaylovich in 1653 (Julian Raby, The Tsars and the East, Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 2009, no.25, pp.66-67).
Parallels are also easily found for the shape of the hilt which is gently faceted and tapers slightly towards the top before an acutely angled pommel. The form of hilt developed during the period of Bayezid II, but these early examples are only slightly inclined to one side. It is towards the end of the 16th century that the bend becomes more pronounced, and during the 17th century that is becomes almost a right-angle at the pommel (Mohamed, op.cit., p.70). Two swords in the Karlsruhe Türkenbeute collection, both attributed to the late 17th century have hilts of similar form (Ernst Petrasch, Reinhard Sänger, Eva Zimmermann and Hans Georg Majer, Die Karlsruher Türkenbeute, Munich, 1991, nos. 129 and 130, pp.186-87). One of them, no. 129, also has a tughra which would have helped in further narrowing the late 17th century attribution, but this is unfortunately now so rubbed that it is illegible. Another parcel gilt hilt was sold at Sotheby's, 25 April 2002, lot 87.
Two very closely related swords are in the Russian Armory Museum in Moscow. Both have similarly decorated mounts and similarly shaped hilts (no. 22 and 23 in the current display). One of the swords, no. 23, is signed by a 'Hadji Ayan'. The other, no. 22, is said to have been presented to Tsar Alexey Mikhaylovich (as the jeweled flask mentioned above) by the Istanbul merchant Dmitry Astafyev in 1655. This demonstrates both the high regard in which swords similar to ours were seen in the 17th century, suitable as gifts to people of power, but also provides us with a likely date for our sword.
The very distinctive aesthetic of our mounts is achieved through a playful use of reserving gold floral decoration against nielloed ground and vice versa. The chape of our sword provides a good illustration of this. The upper register of the chape is decorated with large cusped roundels with silver gilt centres and reserved against a silver gilt ground. Below this there is a register of fleshy palmettes and flowerheads reserved against a nielloed ground. A sword in Dresden, dated to circa 1700, uses the same aesthetic on the locket of its sheath (Schuckelt, op.cit., no.254, pp.249 and 278). The nielloed decoration which takes the form of small sporadic floral scrolls which create a dense flurry of decoration, resembles that on the sheath of a dagger in Dresden (Schuckelt, op.cit., no.303, p.307). That is dated to the late 17th century. Although the stones which are set into them are probably added later, the gold cusped or tulips-shaped mounts on the locket and quillons of the sword relate to those which adorn a number of royal objects of the 17th century - some of which were given as diplomatic gifts, for example a richly inset flask given to Tsar Alexy Mikhaylovich in 1653 (Julian Raby, The Tsars and the East, Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 2009, no.25, pp.66-67).
Parallels are also easily found for the shape of the hilt which is gently faceted and tapers slightly towards the top before an acutely angled pommel. The form of hilt developed during the period of Bayezid II, but these early examples are only slightly inclined to one side. It is towards the end of the 16th century that the bend becomes more pronounced, and during the 17th century that is becomes almost a right-angle at the pommel (Mohamed, op.cit., p.70). Two swords in the Karlsruhe Türkenbeute collection, both attributed to the late 17th century have hilts of similar form (Ernst Petrasch, Reinhard Sänger, Eva Zimmermann and Hans Georg Majer, Die Karlsruher Türkenbeute, Munich, 1991, nos. 129 and 130, pp.186-87). One of them, no. 129, also has a tughra which would have helped in further narrowing the late 17th century attribution, but this is unfortunately now so rubbed that it is illegible. Another parcel gilt hilt was sold at Sotheby's, 25 April 2002, lot 87.
Two very closely related swords are in the Russian Armory Museum in Moscow. Both have similarly decorated mounts and similarly shaped hilts (no. 22 and 23 in the current display). One of the swords, no. 23, is signed by a 'Hadji Ayan'. The other, no. 22, is said to have been presented to Tsar Alexey Mikhaylovich (as the jeweled flask mentioned above) by the Istanbul merchant Dmitry Astafyev in 1655. This demonstrates both the high regard in which swords similar to ours were seen in the 17th century, suitable as gifts to people of power, but also provides us with a likely date for our sword.