A Qajar gem-set jade-hilted watered-steel dagger (kard)
Persia, 19th Century
the single-edged watered-steel blade of tapering form, chiselled to the forte to both sides with a cusped half-palmette cartouche containing inscription, the jade hilt surmounted by a gem, the wood scabbard clad in silver decorated in repoussé with foliate interlace, set with an inscribed turquoise surrounded by gemstones, the upper edge set with further gemstones, the gemstones including emerald, sapphire and a ruby
30.3 cm. long
Footnotes:
Provenance
The Mohammed Khalil Collection.

Published
M. K. Ibrahim, Islamic Arms and Armour, Vol. II, United Arab Emirates, 2022, p. 888, Cat. No. 767.

Inscriptions: a couplet from the preface to Sa'di's Gulistan, gharaz naqshist kaz ma baz manad/ kih hasti ra nami-binam baqa'i, 'The goal is a design that should outlive us, For I see no permanence in existence'; in the turquoise on the scabbard, Sura 65 (al-Talaq), part of vs. 3.
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