A fine and exceptionally Rare Jade-Hilted Talwar, India, 17th century

the slightly curved finely-watered steel blade with jade hilt of light-green colour carved exquisitely in the form of budding lotus flower with a narrow grip, disc pommel and broad basket guard, the cloth-covered wood scabbard with ensuite gold repoussé chape and lock decorated with elephant, camel and deers in procession, scale-patterning and palmette arcades



Please note that the hilt is carved from a single block of jade 

Overall in good condition. the scabbard chape is loose, the fabric worn and split at the sharp side of the blade. the blade is in very good condition and apart from discolouring, the jade hilt is in very good form, as viewed.
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This talwar is from a small group of jade-hilted swords (see Copenhagen, 1982, nos. 154 and 163). This form of hilt executed in jade is rare and to the best of our knowledge unique.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Indian craft.mes n began to carve hilts with sculpted floral forms. Under Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58)  the quality of jade carving attained extraordinary heights; works of this period, many of them carved from white nephrite, are characterised by the organic floral and vegetal decoration of the late Jahangir period, applied with even greater elegance and technical perfection.

A similar design of lotus leaf carving contemporary to this hilt can be found on the covered potiche in the British Museum. The neck is delicately decorated with overlapping lotus petals carved in relief (see The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, V&A, 1982, p.120, no. 360).

The finely watered-steel blade demonstrates an extremely complex Damascus pattern including wavy and motley lines, random circular distortions as well as multiple rudimentary vertical orientations suggestive of the Kirk Narduban configuration (see Figiel, On Damascus Steel, 1991).