A PARCEL-GILT SILVER-DAMASCENED STEEL SADDLE-AXE HEAD (TABARZIN)
Possibly Kutch, Gujarat or Lahore, Punjab, India, 19th century

A PARCEL-GILT SILVER-DAMASCENED STEEL SADDLE-AXE HEAD (TABARZIN)
Possibly Kutch, Gujarat or Lahore, Punjab, India, 19th century

Of typical shape, with a curved single-edged steel blade with a crescentic cutting edge, the butt and sides inlaid in a thick layer of parcel-gilt silver and incised with a decorative grid of blossomed rosette heads against a ring-punched ground contained within a frieze of fleshy palmettes following the shape of the crescentic cutting edge, 12.5cm x 11cm.

For a similar Indian silver-foiled full axe, please see these Rooms, 3 May 2019, lot 315. Another analogous tabarzin can be found in the Royal Armouries collection, Leeds, and is illustrated in T. Richardson and N. Bennett, Indian Arms and Armour, Leeds, 2015, inv. XXVIC.33, p. 34.

(Quantity:1)

Dimensions: 12.5cm x 11cm