This hilt is fascinating as it clearly carries the tiger motif favored by Tipu as his personal totem, however the elements of the form such as the knucklebow, quillons and langet are distinctly of the British M1796 light cavalry sabre. While the British sabres of this pattern were considered one of the first 'regulation' pattern swords for Great Britain, officers were granted a great deal of license in customizing thier own hilts.
During the campaigns in Egypt at the beginning of the Napoleonic period, British officers were profoundly impressed by the warriors known as the Mamluks and thier flamboyant costume and especially the deadly Ottoman hilted sabres. Both they, and the French, adopted the design of these sabres into their own sabres, which eventually became the popular dress sword for officers termed the 'mameluke'. In addition to this, British officers sometimes added certain motif to existing sword hilt styles, creating a manner of hybrid and personalized form which pronounced that officers involvement in key military campaigns. I once owned a British M1803 infantry officers sabre which had the familiar lionhead pommel hilt, but instead of the flowing mane it had added a distinct sphinx headdress, clearly coming from the British campaigns in Egypt. While this practice was not prevalent, it was of course practiced in degree.
It is my opinion that this sabre hilt is one of those examples, probably commissioned by a British officer who saw service in the campaign at Seringpatam in 1799 with the defeat of Tipu Sultan. It seems quite plausible that this hilt was fashioned in the same manner as the M1803 I have described, using as the basis, the new pattern M1796 cavalry sabre.
What is unclear is whether the hilt was produced in India by local outfitters during occupation in years immediately after the famed battle or in England by one of the growing number of weapons contractors outfitting troops.
It is interesting that in India at that time, the British forces were those of the Crown in some degree, but primarily those of the British East India Co. It would seem that if done for an officer of the East India Co. thier device might be found somewhere in the design (while possibly only on the blade, now absent). It is interesting to note that soon after this period, the symbol of the EIC became the rampant lion replacing the quadranted heart with initials.The lionhead pommel did appear on some EIC sabres of this period.
It would be interesting to hear opinions or thoughts on this most interesting hilt. It has been my impression that Tipu would not have used a British hilt design for a sword made in his armouries (he and the British were of course not close
, so probably was not of Tipu's reign. While the use of European blades and material was well established with Tipu's father Haider Ali who used German mercenaries, and swords are known carrying European design, this hilt in my opinion is of British form, so would not be from Tipu's armouries.
Thoughts, observations?
All best regards,
Jim