PROBABLY DAGHESTAN, CAUCASUS, 19TH CENTURY

细节

A VERY FINE CAUCASIAN DAGGER (KINJAL) AND SCABBARD
PROBABLY DAGHESTAN, CAUCASUS, 19TH CENTURY
The heavy, straight, doubled-edged russet steel blade with characteristic off-centre fuller richly inlaid with gold across the full length of the blade, set in a walrus ivory hilt and fastened with two steel studs inlaid with flower motifs of worked gold, the leather-covered wooden scabbard with strap mount decorated en-suite to the hilt and space for an accompanying pocket knife, missing
22 ¼in. (56.5 cm.) long

来源

Anastassias, 35 Place Maubert, Paris, from whom acquired by Charles Gillot before October 1900 (200 francs)
Ancienne Collection Charles Gillot (1853-1903), Christie’s Paris, 5 March 2008, lot 89

刻印

Along the fuller, in three cartouches, Qur’an 61:13 (in part) and an exhortation to Imam ‘Ali in the form of a Persian couplet, zamana bar sar-i jang ast ya ‘ali madadi madad zi ghayr-i tu nang ast ya ‘ali madadi, ‘The world is on the eve of war, O ‘Ali, be my aid! Aid other than yours is shameful, O ‘Ali be my aid!’
Towards the hilt, a maker’s mark, chūn (?)
At the hilt, ya ‘ali adrikni, ‘O ‘Ali! Help me!’

业务规定

荣誉呈献

Phoebe Jowett Smith Sale Coordinator & Cataloguer

pjowettsmith@christies.com +44 20 7752 3221

拍品专文

This remarkable dagger is part of a broad group of daggers characterised by their distinctive hilt form, off-centre fuller, and extensive gold decoration along the full length of the blade. Daggers in this group are in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (V.O.-432, V.O.-498 and V.O.-3390), the State History Museum, Moscow (7071/op), and the National Museum, Krakow (V-2218 /1-2), among other collections. Within this group, the present dagger is remarkable for the extent and quality of its inlay, which can be contrasted with the cheaper gold overlay more typical of this group. It must be considered one of the best of its kind.

A dagger of particular importance to our understanding of this group is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (91.1.890a-c). It carries a long inscription in Georgian bearing the name of David Chavchavadze (1817-84), a Lieutenant General in the Russian imperial army, and is dated AH 1273 / 1856-7 AD in Eastern Arabic numerals and 1861 in Western Arabic numerals as part of the Georgian inscription. As Chavchavadze participated in a military campaign in Daghestan during AH 1273, it is likely that he acquired the dagger there at this time, and had the Georgian inscription added several years later. Our dagger must be attributed to a similar period.

PROBABLY DAGHESTAN, CAUCASUS, 19TH CENTURY

荣誉呈献

拍品专文

更多来自 伊斯兰与印度世界艺术品包括地毯

更多来自伊斯兰与印度世界艺术品包括地毯