Page 60 - 2020 December 2 Bonhams Arts of Devotion bronzes and Stone carvings

1028
A PARCEL GILT SILVER AND GILT COPPER ALLOY AND IRON
CEREMONIAL KNIFE AND SCABBARD
BHUTAN, 19TH CENTURY
With inset turquoise.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16901
Knife: 37 cm (14 1/2 in.) long;
Scabbard: 26 cm (10 1/4 in.) long
HKD160,000 - 200,000

不丹 十九世紀 局部銀鎏金及銅鎏金鐵尖佩刀

Decorated with Buddhist symbols, this ornate Bhutanese dagger has
a tapered, double-edged iron blade with double grooves. Its gilt silver
hilt is covered with a chiseled foliate decoration and turquoise inlay. Its
cap-shaped pommel is embellished on the front with a pierced design
of a parasol with two fish against a background of foliage. The parasol
represents protection from harmful forces whilst the two fish symbolize
the benefits of a state of fearlessness. The back of the pommel is
chiseled with a honeycomb trellis resembling ancient armor designs.

The scabbard’s fine openwork, parcel-gilt silver covering features
dragons and auspicious symbols entwined with dense foliated work.
The principal dragon is masterfully worked into an underlayer, beneath
the foliage, its body marked with gilding which is very closely related
to a sword belt held by the Bhutanese ruler, Ugyen Wangchuck
(Schickgruber, The Tower of Trongsa, 2009, p.84.) A dagger of this
quality almost certainly would have been made for a member of the
Bhutanese nobility.

The sheath is studded with small turquoise chips in box settings
and a plain sheet of silver with pierced silver panels along the border
covering the reverse of the scabbard. Compare with a very closely
related example in the Chengxuntang Collection (Xu, ed. Jewels of
Transcendance, 2018, p.188, no.128) and the Mengdiexuan Collection
(Xu, ed. Jewels of Transcendance, 2018, p.214, no.143). Another
similar example is in the Metropolitan Museum (36.25.833a, b).

Provenance
Private Collection, Milan, acquired in the 1990s

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