Title: Sheath for a Dagger
Date: late 16th or early 17th century
Location: Ottoman Turkey
Materials: wood, covered with silver sheet worked in repoussé with chased and engraved detail, set with a coral
Dimensions: 22.5cm (length)
Accession Number: MTW 894
Other Notes:
The surface is worked with an arabesque of leaves, tendrils and chinoiserie lotuses, all on a punched ground. Along one edge is a frieze of animals, birds and a wyvern-like dragon which is about to catch a fleeing man by the foot, and a double-bodied snake-dragon. The tip is shaped like a dragon’s head holding a coral bead in its jaws.
Such motifs continue the repertoire of mid 16th-century Ottoman goldsmiths but their treatment here is more characteristic of the early 17th century.
Bibliography:
D. Alexander, The Arts of War. Arms and Armour of the 7th to 19th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XXI, London 1992, cat.48, p.100.
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