JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

“The colours employed rival the tints of the rainbow in purity and brilliancy, and they are laid on the gold by the Jeypore artists with such exquisite taste that there is never a want of harmony; even when jewels are also used they serve but to enhance the beauty of the enamel,” so writes T.H. Hendley (Jeypore Enamels, London, 1886, p.5). Here too, the numerous diamonds play a subsidiary role to the polychrome enamel designs. On the scabbard, the false locket plate and chape have been extensively inlaid with diamonds in a floral motif against a translucent dark blue enamel ground, creating a sober bichrome counterbalance to the exuberant polychrome enamelled scabbard, with its dizzying array of floral and bird motifs. The two peacocks at the centre of the composition sum up the push dagger’s intention: dazzling masculine beauty. The palette and choice of motifs bear a close resemblance to those on two elephant goads in the Victoria and Albert Museum (02693(IS)) and the Wallace Collection (OA1382; Thom Richardson and Paula Turner (eds.), The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Arms and Armour from Asia, Africa and the Ottoman World, London, 2026, p.96-7), London. Both were acquired as new items, the latter shortly before its exhibition at the 1865 Musée Retrospectif Exposition, Paris, the former after being shown at the 1871 International Exhibition in London (J. Guy and D. Swallow (eds.), Arts of India: 1550-1900, London, 213 p., 188 pl.). A third enamelled elephant goad within this group was exhibited at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, and by 1880 the art of enamelling in Jaipur reached such great heights that the Maharaja thought it necessary to acquire all enamel products of the city, at great personal cost, so that export was entirely restricted, a fact lamented by Wilbraham Egerton (Wilbraham Egerton, An Illustrated Handbook of Indian Arms, 1880, p.69).

While lavish gem-set push daggers have appeared on the market, none have combined the raw luxury of numerous gemstones with the very fine decorative enamels seen on the present push dagger. A plainer gem-set and enamelled push dagger was sold at Sotheby’s London, 30 March 2022, lot 125, while another, formerly in the collection of Yves Klein and Pierre Bergé, was sold at Christie’s Paris, 25 February 2009, lot 706.