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Details
LOT 1121
Ghaznavid Iron Knife with Calligraphic Inlays
10TH-12TH CENTURY A.D.
12 3/8 in. (91 grams, 31.5 cm).
Composed of a C-shaped socketted hilt and slender blade with single cutting edge slightly curved towards the tip; the outer face of the socket, the top edge and one side of the blade inlaid with gilt inscription, the other side of the blade displaying two gilt felines. [No Reserve]
Provenance
London collection since the 1980s.
Property of a Canadian family.
Literature
Cf. Bashir, M., The Arts of the Muslim Knight, The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Milano, 2008, p.143, for the dagger type.
Footnotes
The gilding process used on the blade seems to be an exceptionally rare example of what was known in medieval Islamic literary sources as ‘gold water’. The blade seems to have been decorated with a Kufic inscription to three sides. It bears witness to the extraordinary sophistication of the metalworkers and jewellers of this period.
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