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Lot Essay
The dense fish-scale motif, fully covering the hilt, locket, and chape, and executed entirely in kundan-set diamonds, achieves an effect that is extraordinarily opulent while paradoxically feeling more austere than the polychrome extravaganza seen on many contemporary luxurious arms and armour. Using only three colours – white diamond, gold, and translucent blue – the sword projects an almost soothing, ‘classical’ appearance, which is enhanced by the inclusion of a high-quality blade of traditional form from a named bladesmith, now sadly unidentifiable.
This impressive diamond-set and enamelled sword finds its closest comparison to another exceptional sword gifted to the British King Edward VII on the occasion of his coronation on 9 August 1902, by Sawai Sir Madho Singh II Bahadur, the Maharaja of Jaipur (Royal Collection, Windsor, RCIN 11288). That sword is set with 719 diamonds with a total weight of approximately two thousand carats, set against a translucent blue enamel ground with basse-taille floral motifs, as on the present sword.
In the absence of inscriptions or elucidating provenance information, it remains unclear for whom the sword was made. Wilbraham Egerton records that by 1880, the finest enamelled works of art were barred from export and acquired by the Maharaja (Wilbraham Egerton, An Illustrated Handbook of Indian Arms, 1880, p.69). It is perhaps thus that the sword was acquired by the Nizams of Hyderabad.
This impressive diamond-set and enamelled sword finds its closest comparison to another exceptional sword gifted to the British King Edward VII on the occasion of his coronation on 9 August 1902, by Sawai Sir Madho Singh II Bahadur, the Maharaja of Jaipur (Royal Collection, Windsor, RCIN 11288). That sword is set with 719 diamonds with a total weight of approximately two thousand carats, set against a translucent blue enamel ground with basse-taille floral motifs, as on the present sword.
In the absence of inscriptions or elucidating provenance information, it remains unclear for whom the sword was made. Wilbraham Egerton records that by 1880, the finest enamelled works of art were barred from export and acquired by the Maharaja (Wilbraham Egerton, An Illustrated Handbook of Indian Arms, 1880, p.69). It is perhaps thus that the sword was acquired by the Nizams of Hyderabad.