SINDH, PAKISTAN, LATE 18TH OR EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The enameling on the present knife combines two distinctive techniques on a single object - translucent greens, turquoises, and blues against a silver ground to render vegetal and geometric motifs, and polychrome enamel paints on an adhesive to render detailed floral and bird motifs. This fascinating combination of techniques is associated with the enamelwork of the Talpur courts of Sindh, who patronised both local and Iranian jewellers (Amin Jaffer and Amina Okada, Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajas: The Al Thani Collection, 2017, p.174).

For other examples of Sindh enamel, see a dagger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (36.25.684) and a closely comparable dagger in the Wallace Collection, London (OA1642; Thom Richardson and Paula Turner (eds.), The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Arms and Armour from Asia, Africa and the Ottoman World, London, 2026, p.236). Two exceptional examples of Sindh enamelwork were sold at Christie’s London, 27 October 2022, lot 111, and 30 April 2026, lot 117.