Persian Dhal question
 

Greetings all.
I have been learning from this site for awhile and now need some imput.

I have just purchased and recieved a shield from Ebay, and have some concerns about it. I would appreciate a few comments reguarding the age(listed as 18th century), and quality, made for combat or made for tourist/decoration.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Regards,

Tim

Well , it looks like it's missing a center boss .
Otherwise the pictures are of too poor a quality to tell much .

Its also missing the leather straps and the padding in the center of the underside. Mind you these are perishable materials and would have rotted away long ago if this shield is 18th century. What's it made of?

I could be wrong here but I was under the impression that functional battle-shields were usually made from cane or leather. the highly decorated steel or iron shields were mainly for show.

Aqtai, while there is probably a certain amount of truth to the hide vs metal shield statement, I also believe that this also frequently was a reflection of the status of the shield owner, thus I would hesitate to think in such blanket terms......this particular shield has erosian of the koftgari that would be appropriate for that general age, and the decoration doesn't appear to be so elaborate as to rule out actual use, particularly the bosses.
Likewise, a dent looks linear enough so that it may have stopped a blow or two, possibly by a sword or such, but that could just as well have been from a careless mover, so at best it's supposition, but in any case it DOES look to be a well made shield and one that you should be proud to own, Tim.....my own personal opinion would be that this wasn't just a display piece.
Here's a photo of the reverse of an an old buffalo hide shield from the late 18th or early 19th century that was definitely a combat piece....if you look carefully, on the lower left quadrant is a bronze patch riveted over a musket, lance or arrow hole and in the upper right quadrant is a definite sword cut (this leather is so hard as to rival thinner metal shields).
In this case the padding and the grip straps are also of very heavy leather, the only reason that they remain, with many shields having been covered in either paint or fabric on the back.
Mike

steel shields did exist of an early age (16th/17thC) but they are just rare and hard to find, in collections or books. virtually all the steel shields known are late and decorators. miniatures show a wealth of hide shields and so its easy to assume that they preceeded steel shields but this isnt so.

an early steel shield, made for use.