A GOLD-DAMASCENED (KOFTGARI) TULWAR-HILTED KILIJ SWORD
Possibly Rajasthan or Punjab Hills, Northern India, late 19th century

With a curved single-edged Turkish scimitar-like watered wootz steel blade, the forte and blade plain, with a thick flat tang sharpened towards the tip, the typical koftgari tulwar handle inlaid in gold with rosettes and vegetal sprays and designed with a T-shaped cover of the forte with bulbous terminals, with a ridged grip and sinuous handguard, at the top a decorative disc engraved with a gold-inlaid sun and a hemispherical pommel with a pointed finial in the centre, to the inside of the disc further koftgari floral decoration, fitted in a later black velvet-lined scabbard, 96.4cm long excluding the scabbard.

The marriage of a koftgari tulwar hilt with a kilij blade is rather unusual. Kilij blades developed from early Turko-Mongol sabers and were later associated with the swords traditionally used in the Turkish Khanates of Central Asia and the Eurasian steppes, and in the Ottoman Empire. The combination could have been brought about by a later unmindful mix or perhaps, it was a specific commission with the clear intention of blending Eastern and Western armorial traditions into one.