the curved elaborately watered single-edged blade (some old light rust patination) with shallow central fuller over most of its length on both sides, the back of the blade pierced with ten narrow rectangular slots containing numerous free-running metal balls known as ‘The tears of Allah’, characteristic steel hilt decorated overall with a densely set gold-damascened trelliswork design of flower-heads, the outer edges of the grip with a gold-damascened frond, and comprising pointed langets, quillons with button terminals, disc-shaped pommel with rounded finial on a dome, and integral swelling grip, in its wooden scabbard (some damage) covered in blue fabric embroidered in brocade with repeated flowers, 76.5 cm blade

Provenance

Philippe Missillier Collection, no. 119C

The hilt is decorated with a trellis in overlaid gold, also found in silver on several bidri bottles and hookah bases. This design is considered indicative of a Deccani provenance by Susan Stronge (Stronge 1985, pp. 50, 52 and 53, no. 14, see Spink 2022, p. 1067 and p.1073, cat. no. 694). The blade is pierced with slots for small balls, which could be made of polished gems or seed pearls, later of gilded metal as here. Pierced blades were favoured in Iran and Turkey in the sixteenth century, becoming rare by the 17th century. Some of these were fitted to Indian hilts. Blades of this type were also made in India, perhaps from the seventeenth century onwards, and the blade on this tulwar is almost certainly Indian. Most of these rare pierced blades are for daggers, while pierced sword blades are even more unusual. A dagger blade in the Al Thani collection, made in Iran or India circa 1750-1800 and fitted with an Indian horse-head jade hilt, has slots with seed pearls similarly placed along the back edge of the blade (Jaffer 2019, p. 156, cat. 129). Several sword blades formerly in the Figiel collection are slotted for small moveable balls (Figiel 1991, pp. 92-3, 102-3, 106-7, nos IS1, IS6, IS8). For discussions on pierced blades, see Ivanov 1979 and Alexander 2015, pp. 208-209).