Qajar or Afsharid ?

[DavidFriedman]

A full length picture. Thanks

[Oliver Pinchot]

It is Qajar, made in the reign of Nasr al-Din Shah (r. 1848-1896.)
He was responsible for the neoclassicism in arms and armor and generally, for Iran's cultural revival.

[Philip]

I wonder what the significance is of the tokhes-shaped or gluteoform tip.

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by Philip

I wonder what the significance is of the tokhes-shaped or gluteoform tip.

Clearly it is not a sex toy...
So probably a baby zulfiqar... It will make more sense in Persian context.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Clearly it is not a sex toy...
So probably a baby zulfiqar... It will make more sense in Persian context.

Well, Iran has quite a tradition of eroticism in the arts. I thought that the poetic expression was Sufistic spiritualism expressed in a physical metaphor, but some years ago a collector showed me a 18th or 19th cent. khanjar, with a nice black wootz blade and an exquisitely carved ivory grip of classic form, inscriptions top and bottom, with a scene that left nothing to the imagination. Neither of us could read the lingo, I still wonder what the script said.

[DavidFriedman]

Hi Philip,
I will look over my copy of The Perfumed Garden, and see if this type of “weapon” was employed in their pillow arts. A quintessential pillow sword of a nobleman. Though I would hope it was designed for more warmongering courtly pleasures.

I too have seen a Katar that would make Pamela Anderson blush. Scenes painted on it, that probably were subliminal messages to the nobleman date that night as they drank wine and ate figs.

Originally Posted by Philip

Well, Iran has quite a tradition of eroticism in the arts. I thought that the poetic expression was Sufistic spiritualism expressed in a physical metaphor, but some years ago a collector showed me a 18th or 19th cent. khanjar, with a nice black wootz blade and an exquisitely carved ivory grip of classic form, inscriptions top and bottom, with a scene that left nothing to the imagination. Neither of us could read the lingo, I still wonder what the script said.