Lot 614
INDIAN SILVER-INLAID STEEL TULWAR SWORD
19TH CENTURY
Auction: Day Two: 18 May 2023 | From 11:00
Description
the hilt of typical shape with a circular disc and T-shaped forte, the silver-inlaid decoration consisting of interlocking foliate trellis and lush rosettes, the curved blade with engraved decoration, the embossed leather scabbard with embossed and chased silver mounts in a similar floral pattern
Dimensions
90cm long
Provenance
Provenance: Kimmerghame, Duns, the Estate of the Late Major General Sir John Swinton K.C.V.O., O.B.E., D.L.
Footnote
Note: Captain Archibald Swinton (1731-1804) was a Scottish surgeon that went to India in the service of the East India Company. He reached Madras in 1752 and took part in the campaigns being waged between the French and English Companies for supremacy in the south. He also took part in an expedition 1756-57 to Negrais in Burma, arriving at Ganjam in Eastern India in 1759 and from there went on to Calcutta. During this time he also transferred from being a surgeon to an ensignship in the Company’s Bengal army.
When Archibald Swinton left the Company’s service at the end of 1765, he also left India with an unprecedented mastery of the Persian language, local customs and strong relationships with the Mughal nobility. Swinton was a very early collector of Indian and Mughal art and on returning to Scotland he brought with him a substantial collection Indian paintings, works of art, ivories, arms, jewels, Persian books and silver and jade handled daggers. This is documented in family papers.