Hi Rsword.
Permission to back peddle?! It's just that your pics make me see it in a different light, particularly picture 4. The image looks like it could be the shaft of a Persian tabar, or Bikanner all steel Indian mace! (The Muslim Knight - Furisyya collection) has a small group of these in the book.
I don't recall seeing a wooden haft shaped like this before, but I have seen iron 'faceted' like this.
It may be South Indian, one of the Dravidian tribes, and taken influence from the South Indian Sangs and other pole-arms that have the bulbous 'hand separators'. See pics of a 17thC South Indian Sang. Yours has the Bulbous globes, with a caved ring each side, this is exactly what we see on many South Indian pole-arms.
Regards
Runjeet
|