Search results

Start typing

Attributed to Mughal Workshop

Talwar and scabbard 1600 - 1850

Steel, gold, copper, wood, leather | 93.0 cm (length) | RCIN 67062

Your share link is...

  Close

  • Mughal blade with a later talwar hilt. The ferrous hilt is of 19th-century Delhi-type and is covered with carved flowers overlaid with gold, the knucklebow ending in tiger head. The curved blade has a forge-welded structure that may once have shown a pattern but is now polished white. The top third of the blade has been inlaid with caligraphic inscriptions in high-carat gold. The later wooden scabbard is covered in brown velvet with a pierced silver chape decorated with flowers.

    The inscriptions on the blade include the lines:

     'From the cloud of the sword of Jehan Geer, greatest of Kings, there distils in place of dew liquid fire in the day of Battle. From his sword torrents of fire rain...' On the reverse reads, 'There is no God but God and Mahomet is his Prophet. Jehan Geer, King of the sea and land, Champion of the faith, Lord of his age...' A full translation is included in the North Corridor Inventory of Windsor Castle.

    See:
    Richard R Holmes and William Gibb, Naval & Military Trophies & Personal Relics of British Heroes. A series of water colour drawings (London, 1896), XXVII “Swords surrendered at Delhi by the King and Princes to Major Hodson”.
    Susan Stronge (ed.), The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms (London, 1999), p.213

    Provenance

    Presented to Queen Victoria by Susan Hodson, widow of Major William Stephen Raikes Hodson (1821-1858).

    During the Indian Rebellion, the sword was taken by Major William Stephen Raikes Hodson (1821-1858) of the East India Company Army. In one of the most controversial moments of 1857, on 22 September Hodson killed the three shahzadahs, or princes – an act which caused outcry at the time, and became the subject of conflicting accounts. Hodson was later allowed to select two of the royal swords. A few months later, on 11 March 1858, Hodson was killed at Lucknow. The swords were subsequently presented to Queen Victoria by Hodson's widow, Susan.

    A letter from Hodson to his brother, published in The Times on 22 February 1858 recalls the surrender of Bahadur Shah and Hodson's aquisition of the swords:

    'The old man [Bahadur Shah] then gave up his arms, which Captain Hodson handed to his orderly, still keeping his own sword drawn...On proceeding to the General's [Wilson] quarters to report his successful return and hand over the royal arms, he was received with the characteristic speech, "Well, I’m glad you have got him, but I never expected to see either him or you again!"... He [Hodson] was requested to select for himself from the royal arms what he chose, and has therefore two magnificent swords, one with the name of "Nadir Shah," and the other the seal of Jehan Guire (sic) engraved upon it, which he intends to present to the Queen.'

  • Medium and techniques

    Steel, gold, copper, wood, leather

    Measurements

    93.0 cm (length)

    80.0 cm (blade length)

  • Place of Production

    India


The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.