NORTH INDIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

This very elegant and realistically carved dagger in the form of a horse’s head, is a fine example of Mughal craftsmanship. The earliest reference to a zoomorphic hilt in Mughal art appears in a painting of Jamal Khan Qarawul by Murad, in the Kevorkian Album and dated to circa 1610-15 (Joseph M. Dye III, The Arts of India. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia, 2001, p.422, the painting published in Stuart Cary Welch et al, The Emperors' Album. Images of Mughal India, New York, 1987, no.26, pp.132-33). As Stuart Cary Welch writes, a look at the Padshahnama reveals that the most common form of dagger worn during the reign of Shah Jahan (c.1627-58) was the katar, followed closely by the khanjar. Of the khanjars depicted in the manuscript however, there are only very few examples with animal-head hilts. Welch suggests that it is only therefore after the reign of Shah Jahan that the trend for zoomorphic hilts proliferated (Stuart Cary Welch, India. Art and Culture 1300-1900, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, p.258). Bashir Mohamed writes that the tradition of hilts of jade, rock crystal or ivory in the form of rams, deer, lions or stallions, is a testimony to a former pastoral existence (The Arts of the Muslim Knight. The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Milan, 2007, p.142). One of the few examples depicted is a horse-headed dagger tucked into the sash of Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan, in a scene entitled 'The presentation of Prince Dara Shikoh's wedding gifts', folio 72v (Milo Cleveland Beach and Ebba Koch, King of the World. A Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, London, 1997, no.14, pp.46-7).

For another example of a Mughal horse-headed jade-hilted dagger, see lot 67.