Rare Mughal Dagger

[ALEX]

Jens, you're certainly right. and thanks for pointing out the difference between Nilgai and Marwari)
As you know, the Kundan is still practiced in certain part of India, and some artists produce it with incredible accuracy and relatively close to original. here is lesser quality example, to demonstrate it can be "applied" on material other than mineral, in this case it is on resin done with earlier described technique.

[estcrh]

Here is an example that sold at auction in 2012 for £20,000/$32,240, it looks like the stones and gold were removed and very bad replacements were added. As you can see the workmanship on this hilt does not look anything like some of the really nice ones posted here.

[Shakethetrees]

It looks like all the fold and good stones were removed, and replaced with lead covered with gold leaf.

[Shakethetrees]

Originally Posted by ALEX

Jens, you're certainly right. and thanks for pointing out the difference between Nilgai and Marwari)
As you know, the Kundan is still practiced in certain part of India, and some artists produce it with incredible accuracy and relatively close to original. here is lesser quality example, to demonstrate it can be "applied" on material other than mineral, in this case it is on resin done with earlier described technique.

The thickness of the gold line decoration leads me to believe it is lead covered with gold leaf! No delicacy at all compared to old work.

[ALEX]

By "applied" I meant similar to wood marquetry (applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns). The panel showed above is made of resin, so no heat was used, so I believe the frame was embossed and made to fit the carved pattern (or vise versa) and inserted into recesses.