[B.I]

this dagger has provoked some debate. i have strong opinions, but would love to hear other views. it was recently sold in auction. this is the description, along with the provenance.

A SMALL MUGHAL KNIFE WITH AGATE AND JADE HILT, INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
A UNIQUELY IMPORTANT MUGHAL DAGGER WITH BLADE STAMPED WITH A CROWNED CR MARK OF CHARLES I OF ENGLAND (R.1625-1649)

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
23.5cm.

DESCRIPTION

hilt of banded agate set with a jade pommel exquisitely carved in the form of a ram's head with a collar of lotus petals, the steel blade with floral damascening at the forte and stamped on one side with the crowned initials CR, later repair to hilt, fitted red leather case from Parkes, 12 Vigo Street, Regent Street, W.

PROVENANCE

Probably King Charles I (r.1625-49)
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), Liberal Prime Minister (1894-1895), and thence by descent

This exquisite dagger is probably the smallest Mughal jade-hilted knife in existence. The jade ram's head pommel is remarkable for the refinement of the carving and the naturalism with which the animal is rendered, down to the individual hairs of the beard. Finials and pommels in the form of animal heads gained popularity during the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-57); the jade wine cup with ram's head handle in the Victoria and Albert Museum is a notable example (inv. no. IS 12-1962), to which this more modest piece can be compared. The quality is certainly commensurate with an elite commission.

The stamped CR mark on the Indian blade is of great interest. Extensive research has shown that it is not a cutler's mark, nor is it a government acceptance mark which is found on armour of the Restoration period. It most resembles the brand used on the back of Charles I's pictures which were dispersed after his execution. A detailed search through the inventory of Charles I's estate shows a number of references to daggers with hardstone handles; regretably none is specific.

The arrival of Indian objects in England in the early seventeenth century and their entry into the Royal Collection is recorded in a number of documented instances, notably the manuscript sent by the Emperor Shah Jahan to King Charles in 1638, as well as an Indian brass image recorded in the 1638 Royal Inventory (The Origins of Museums, ed. Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor, Oxford, 1985, repr. 2001, p.381 & notes 54 and 55). Although there was clearly more than one series of exchanges, the voyage of the Earl of Denbigh to India in 1631-33, was the most celebrated of these early encounters.

William Feilding, 1st Earl of Denbigh (c.1582-1643) rose to power at the court of King James I (1603-25) and then Charles I (1625-49) through his marriage to Susan Villiers, the sister of the royal favourite, the Duke of Buckingham. Feilding was created Master of the Great Wardrobe and Earl of Denbigh in 1622. A decade later he embarked on a sea voyage to India, prompted, we are told, by curiosity and a sense of adventure. Travelling on East India Company ships and carrying letters of introduction from King Charles, the journey had a serious purpose: to revive contact between the British court and the Mughal Empire, first established by the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe some seventeen years earlier, and to build political influence at a time of expanding trade.

Denbigh stayed in India about a year and a half before returning to the court of King Charles in August 1633. Amongst the gifts and souvenirs that he carried home with him were jewels, some pieces of 'Mesopotamian' cloth and an old 'pagan coat' (The Raj. India and the British 1600-1947, London, 1990, pp.73-4). His dandyish interest in Mughal clothing is manifested in the large oil portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck in the National Gallery, London (acc. no. 5633) painted soon after his return, in which he is shown clad in a paijama of Indian style evocative of the new age of exotic travel. Two Mughal silver water sprinklers (gulabpash) bearing the arms of the 3rd Earl of Denbigh, one in the V&A (inv. no. IS 46-1988) and another sold through these rooms, 12 October 1988, lot 89, were evidently brought back by the 1st Earl at this time. It is tempting to suggest that Denbigh presented Charles I with the knife upon his return in 1633.

In the late nineteenth century the knife is recorded in the collection of the 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), Liberal Prime Minister (1894-1895) and an avid collector of Jacobite relics. The handsome case of crimson red calf made by Parkes of 12 Vigo Street, off New Bond Street, dates to this period. Rosebery married in 1878, Hannah Rothschild, only child of Baron Meyer de Rothschild, heiress to the fabulous collection at Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire. The handsome case of crimson red calf made by Parkes of 12 Vigo Street, off New Bond Street, dates to this period.