Gentleman
Thank you for adding your thoughts. I appreciate the additional information and overall "brainstorming". I think it will take additional research and time to find another matching example with better provenance to help tie down where this thing may have originated.
The pommel is still perplexing me. Comparable Persian hilts tend to be lions and realistic. Of course, Tipu and his tiger pommels were also large and realistic. This one, which I think is closer to a tiger than a lion, is quite abstract.
Brian, if you look at the example of Tipu's helmet on p. 60, the nasal protector at the very top which extends above the top of the padding, you see the terminal ending which is a tiger. If you look at the downcurving projections from that tiger, they are elongated "duckbills". If you turn the book sideways when looking at this downcurving projection from the tiger head, I believe you will see what I am talking about.
Another interesting sword for comparison purposes is in Buttin's "Catalogue De La Collection D'Armes Anciennes" in the very back in Planche XXXII. Example 1005 is listed as an Arabic Saif, 16th or 17th century, but if you look closely at the pommel, it seems abstract and although not exactly like my example, there seems to be similarities. Buttins description, which although I do not read French, could make out that he attributes this stylized "monster" pommel to Singalese influences. I do not know that that association is accurate in this paricular case but the abstract look of the pommel was interesting.
Man, I am all over the board with this one. Sweet!
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