All Collections
Previous Next
Back to Collection

Dagger and Sheath

MTW 1143 | Turkey and Germany | 16th and 17th centuries

Print Download

Artwork Details

Title: Dagger and Sheath

Date: 16th and 17th centuries

Location: Turkey and Germany

Materials: blade of gold-damascened steel with pearls; hilt of lapis lazuli and gilt silver; sheath of leather-covered wood with silver mounts

Dimensions: 36cm (length, dagger); 26.5cm (sheath)

Accession Number: MTW 1143

Other Notes:

The steel blade, with armour-piercing tip, is slightly curved and is slit along its length. It is datable by its superb gold damascening to circa 1540–50. The panel below the hilt bears three freely moving seed pearls. Blades of this high quality reached 16th-century Western Europe as diplomatic gifts. The 17th-century European hilt, which is probably German, is of faceted lapis lazuli set in a silver quillon-block: the quillons terminate in a down-turned feline’s head and the up-turned face of a moustachioed barbarian. The engraving of the silver-gilt collar is en suite with that on the silver mounts of the black leather-covered sheath. Both are a creditable version of a mid-16th century Ottoman hatayi scroll.

Bibliography:

D. Alexander, The Arts of War. Arms and Armour of the 7th to 19th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XXI, London 1992, cat.51, p.102.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.412, p.346–7.

Related Artworks

Small Flask

JLY 1075
Jaipur, India

Youth in European Dress and Young Woman with Indian Headdress, from a Shahnamah

MSS 1000.1, MSS 1000.2
Isfahan, Iran

Dish

POT 684
Syria

Calligraphic Composition

CAL 154
Ottoman Turkey

Mail and Plate Shirt

MTW 1158
Northern Caucasus
for the Persian or Ottoman market

Two ‘Hands of Fatimah’

JLY 1923
India, possibly Hyderabad (Deccan)

Calligraphic Practice Sheet

CAL 266
Qazvin, Iran

Single Folio from a Four-part Qur’an

KFQ 90
Iran, Isfahan

Carpet with Star Medallions

TXT 213
Ushak, western Anatolia, Turkey

Mosque Lamp

GLS 572
Egypt

Single Folio from a Qur’an

KFQ 45
Middle East or North Africa

Single Folio from a Qur’an

KFQ 50
Middle East

Five Folios from a Qur’an

KFQ 52
Middle East or North Africa

Two Folios from the ‘Blue Qur’an’

KFQ 53
North Africa or Spain

Single Folio from a Qur’an

KFQ 60
probably the Hijaz

Two Bifolios from a Qur’an

KFQ 82
Middle East

Single Folio from a Qur’an

KFQ 93
Middle East or North Africa

Single Folio from a Large Qur’an

KFQ 96
probably North Africa

Single Folio from a Qur'an

KFQ 34
Middle East

Single Folio from a Qur’an

KFQ 84
Middle East or North Africa

Zoom

Close

Khalili Collections Logo

Share this page