Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ariel · 1st November 2014, 02:05 PM

Gavin, I know full well that they were not signed or dated by and large. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked. But there are other ways, written sources, for example. And I do believe that experienced dealers do have a sense of age: materials, patination etc.
I have a feeling that a wootz blade or an ivory handle would be unlikely to be found on a choora made in, say, 1940:-)

You must have a copy of Egerton: Plate XIV, number 624.Is it a choora or not?
Egerton collected his samples during his short stay in India in the 1850s, if I remember.And he even specifically mentions a dagger called Ch'hurra , made in Khorasan, Kabul and Jellalabad: the last two located in the vicinity of the Khyber Pass and the first likely referring to the wootz examples, like yours.

Unless there is an iron-clad provenance, I would tentatively place your choora in the 19th century.

What do you think?

1st November 2014, 02:05 PM	#49
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Gavin, I know full well that they were not signed or dated by and large. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked. But there are other ways, written sources, for example. And I do believe that experienced dealers do have a sense of age: materials, patination etc. I have a feeling that a wootz blade or an ivory handle would be unlikely to be found on a choora made in, say, 1940:-) You must have a copy of Egerton: Plate XIV, number 624.Is it a choora or not? Egerton collected his samples during his short stay in India in the 1850s, if I remember.And he even specifically mentions a dagger called Ch'hurra , made in Khorasan, Kabul and Jellalabad: the last two located in the vicinity of the Khyber Pass and the first likely referring to the wootz examples, like yours. Unless there is an iron-clad provenance, I would tentatively place your choora in the 19th century. What do you think?