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拍品专文
The hilt and chape of this sword are finely decorated in gold-inlay with with a seemingly inexhaustible arrangement of birds and waterfowl. The variety of birds extends to flocks of birds in flight and nesting, peacocks strutting on riverbanks, waders and waterfowl standing among lotus-filled waters populated by fish, and birds of prey swooping down onto unsuspecting quarry.
The closest parallels to the rich decoration on our sword can be found in Lucknow enamels of the 18th century. Particularly relevant are the enamelled mounts on a shamshir in the Wallace Collection, London (OA1398; Thom Richardson and Paula Turner (eds.), Catalogue of Arms and Armour from Asia, Africa and the Ottoman World, London, 2025, p.70). The cross-guard and suspension loops have comparable scenes of wading birds and birds of prey attacking waterfowl, while the chape is particularly close to the present example. On one side a peacock displays his plumage to two peahens; below a bird of prey attacks a waterfowl, while waders adorn the base. As here, the vignettes are separated horizontally by bands of flowing water. Comparable enamelling can also be found on two late 18th century swords from Awadh in the Wallace Collection (OA1540 and OA1408; see Richardson and Turner (eds.) (op.cit.), pp.70-75). Further comparable decoration is found on a fine enamelled Lucknow huqqa base sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 249, which includes similar rocky outcrops emerging from the riverine ground and which issue trees or floral sprays. Although executed in enamel rather than inlayed in gold, these works share the same animated riverine landscapes and densely populated avian imagery seen here, suggesting a common decorative vocabulary within late 18th century Lucknow workshops.
In comparison to the formal single plant studies or floral sprays favoured in Mughal decoration of the 17th and 18th centuries, the design here is much closer to the more exuberant floral designs associated with the decorative arts of 18th century Lucknow (Stephen Markel, "The Luxury Arts of Lucknow", in Markel and Bindu Gude (eds.), India's Fabled City, The Art of Courtly Lucknow, New York, 2011, p.200). This more naturalistic style perhaps harks back to the more expressive aesthetic found in Mughal art from the period of Akbar's reign (1556-1605), for example wonderfully dynamic decoration on the interior of the Turkish Sultana's house in Fatehpur Sikri, however the shape our hilt is one that developed in the mid- to second half of the 17th century and continuing into the 18th century. A useful case study that highlights this progression is a group of four tulwars in the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia belonging to each of the Mughal Emperors Akbar (23.15.1), Jahangir (23.15.3), Shah Jahan (23.15.2) and Aurangzeb (23.15.4). In addition to a transition to busier but more formalised decoration, we see that the shape of the tulwar hilt changes over time. The hilt becomes larger, the quillons more elegantly waisted and pommel disc wider and flatter. A gold-inlaid tulwar hilt of near identical form to ours dated to the late 18th century is published in Norman, Ricketts and Andersen, Islamic Arms and Armour from Private Danish Collections, Copenhagen, 1982, no. 182, pp. 214-15.
Although surviving examples of Lucknow gold-inlay are rare, the city was renowned for the technical excellence of its metalworkers during the reigns of Shuja al-Dawla (r.1754-75) and Asaf al-Dawla (r.1775-97) (Markel, op.cit., p.222). A gold-inlaid smallsword in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (26.145.337), produced in late 18th century Lucknow or Murshidabad for export, attests to the wider reputation enjoyed by Awadhi metalwork beyond the subcontinent. Its existence demonstrates that fine gold-inlay works formed part of the broader luxury metalworking tradition for which Lucknow was celebrated.
The closest parallels to the rich decoration on our sword can be found in Lucknow enamels of the 18th century. Particularly relevant are the enamelled mounts on a shamshir in the Wallace Collection, London (OA1398; Thom Richardson and Paula Turner (eds.), Catalogue of Arms and Armour from Asia, Africa and the Ottoman World, London, 2025, p.70). The cross-guard and suspension loops have comparable scenes of wading birds and birds of prey attacking waterfowl, while the chape is particularly close to the present example. On one side a peacock displays his plumage to two peahens; below a bird of prey attacks a waterfowl, while waders adorn the base. As here, the vignettes are separated horizontally by bands of flowing water. Comparable enamelling can also be found on two late 18th century swords from Awadh in the Wallace Collection (OA1540 and OA1408; see Richardson and Turner (eds.) (op.cit.), pp.70-75). Further comparable decoration is found on a fine enamelled Lucknow huqqa base sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 249, which includes similar rocky outcrops emerging from the riverine ground and which issue trees or floral sprays. Although executed in enamel rather than inlayed in gold, these works share the same animated riverine landscapes and densely populated avian imagery seen here, suggesting a common decorative vocabulary within late 18th century Lucknow workshops.
In comparison to the formal single plant studies or floral sprays favoured in Mughal decoration of the 17th and 18th centuries, the design here is much closer to the more exuberant floral designs associated with the decorative arts of 18th century Lucknow (Stephen Markel, "The Luxury Arts of Lucknow", in Markel and Bindu Gude (eds.), India's Fabled City, The Art of Courtly Lucknow, New York, 2011, p.200). This more naturalistic style perhaps harks back to the more expressive aesthetic found in Mughal art from the period of Akbar's reign (1556-1605), for example wonderfully dynamic decoration on the interior of the Turkish Sultana's house in Fatehpur Sikri, however the shape our hilt is one that developed in the mid- to second half of the 17th century and continuing into the 18th century. A useful case study that highlights this progression is a group of four tulwars in the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia belonging to each of the Mughal Emperors Akbar (23.15.1), Jahangir (23.15.3), Shah Jahan (23.15.2) and Aurangzeb (23.15.4). In addition to a transition to busier but more formalised decoration, we see that the shape of the tulwar hilt changes over time. The hilt becomes larger, the quillons more elegantly waisted and pommel disc wider and flatter. A gold-inlaid tulwar hilt of near identical form to ours dated to the late 18th century is published in Norman, Ricketts and Andersen, Islamic Arms and Armour from Private Danish Collections, Copenhagen, 1982, no. 182, pp. 214-15.
Although surviving examples of Lucknow gold-inlay are rare, the city was renowned for the technical excellence of its metalworkers during the reigns of Shuja al-Dawla (r.1754-75) and Asaf al-Dawla (r.1775-97) (Markel, op.cit., p.222). A gold-inlaid smallsword in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (26.145.337), produced in late 18th century Lucknow or Murshidabad for export, attests to the wider reputation enjoyed by Awadhi metalwork beyond the subcontinent. Its existence demonstrates that fine gold-inlay works formed part of the broader luxury metalworking tradition for which Lucknow was celebrated.