a couple of years ago, the baird family decided to sell of a very important sword into a london auction. the sword was presented to general baird, after being taken from tipus bedchamber on the night of the seige. as, by the very nature of his death, it was impoosible to say which were his swords and which were that fo his bodyguard, the bedchamber sword bacame unique, as tipu was well known to have had a sword from his armoury brought to his bedchamber every day.
the sword sold for £180,000 to an anonomous telephone bidder.
a few months later, an extremely rich mysore politician announced that he had bought the sword and returned it to mysore, its rightful home. this announcement was 10 days before he was running for election.
due to the indian presence at the presale gathering, it was spreculated that the same businessman/politician bought the majority of the collection (by phone to hide his identity) which makes sence, as the buyer was unaware of arms, from a collector/dealer point of view. some pieces had no true tipu connection, but was bought for a high price. i think the 'tipu sale' provenance replaced the lacking 'tipu' provenance on some pieces.
it is believed there will one day be a museum of sorts, but i know the purschase of these pieces has nothing to do with giving them back to the people.
aqtai, the fabric armour was of the highest quality and condition. the quiver and armguards especially were absolutely stunning. these were of pure mysore design, but the only connection with tipu that the description offered, were the presence of the distinct bubri motif which adorned both pieces. the auction house did not contact the estate for any provenance, as the collection was bought privately fisrt, then put straight into auction. if wiggington did leave any records, it was not known and this information is now irrelevant due to the collection being broken up.
however, a few years back i stumbled across a list of arms in the united services museum in london. this museum still exists, although it sold off all the arms in the 60s. the list i found was compiled in the 1900s and the cllection was donated from military men and their families. in this list was a quiver and arrows, taken from tipu after the seige. ok, speculation or coincidence, except it is known amongst a few, that wiggington attended this sale in the 60s and bought the tipu items.
still a little loose, but i would guess these pieces had a closer link to tipu than the mere existance of the motifs.
jens, i would take berkleys advice, and keep all cannon outside the house. but, make sure you inform the postman as you may find an absence of mail and visitors in general.
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