with curved fullered blade (old rust patination and pitting) double-edged towards the point (oval copper alloy repair on both sides), hilt of characteristic form comprising downcurved copper alloy quillons and knuckle-guard each engraved with foliage and with stylised monster-head terminal each set with a domed fluted green-stained bead in its mouth, wood and horn grip with beaked pommel veneered in panels of turtle shell veneered around the edges with small alternate panels of turtle shell, mother-of-pearl and green-stained horn, and enriched with small green-stained circles each centred on a red coral (corallium rubrum) bead, and border engraved silver pommel-cap and collar both decorated with foliage (minor losses), 62.0 cm blade

Provenance

Philippe Missillier Collection, no. 132C

A very similar example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 36.25.1550a,b; Alexander 2015, pp. 178-179). The commentary reads: ‘The decoration of the hilt and scabbard of the Museum’s North African sabre indicates an Ottoman influence, which can be seen especially in the vase motif used on the pommel… and the alternation of plaques of horn and mother-of-pearl on the hilt. The latter is especially relevant, as it is also found on a very similar sabre in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, that is stamped with the tugra of Mustaffa II (r. 1695-1703). The Museum’s sabre is also of exactly the same type as five now in Madrid that were captured at the battel of Oran in western Algeria in 1732, when that port was reconquered by the Spanish. At the time Oran was under the jurisdiction of the bey of Mascara, Bu Shalagham, who in turn was overseen by the Bey of Algeria (who from 1708 to 1732 was subject to Ottoman Sultan)’. See also another example in Mohamed 2008, p. 77, no. 41.