Property from a distinguished private collection
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
the steel barrel formed in two stages with moulded and gilt girdle, belled towards the muzzle, finely decorated with silver and gold inlay including a Persian quatrain, maker's signature, date, and place of manufacture, with 'Haydar' control mark, the bubri-shaped tang inscribed with magic number, the lockplate and its full external complement of parts all cut in bubri-form, with 'Haydar' control mark, with gold inlaid maker's signature, date and place of manufacture, and unusually elaborate 'Haydar' magic square in two colours of gold, the cock sculpted in the form of a tiger, the walnut stock carved with bubri motifs, with silver mounts struck with 'Haydar' control marks, the butt-plate engraved with the tiger cypher of Tipu Sultan, original iron sling-swivels and ramrod
101.3 cm.
Christie's, London, 22 July 1992, lot 137
Robin Wigington, Stratford-upon-Avon
Sotheby's, London, The Tipu Sultan Collection, 25 May 2005, lot 47
Bonhams, London, 21 April 2015, lot 167
Robin Wigington, The Firearms of Tipu Sultan 1783-1799, Hatfield, 1992, pp.95-100.
inscriptions
On the barrel, in mirror form, in the image of a tiger face: asad allah al-ghalib, 'the victorious lion of God'
On the barrel, by the breech: Patan, saneh 1223 / Sayyid 'Ali / karkhaneh-ye huzur, 'Seringapatan, the year 1223 (1794-95 AD )/ Sayyid 'Ali / the royal workshop'
Along the length of the barrel: tofang-e bi-nazir-e khosraw-e hend / ke bashad barq-e suzan thani-ye u / tavanad sar-nevesht-e khasm bar-dasht / hadaf gardad agar pishani-ye u, 'the peerless gun of the Khusraw of India / to which the forked lightning is second / can seal the fate of the enemy / if [their] forehead is made the target
On the lock: Patan, saneh 1223 / Sayyid 'Ali, 'Seringapatan, the year 1223 (1794-95 AD)/ Sayyid 'Ali'
When this blunderbuss was published by Robin Wigington, he tentatively identified it with a blunderbuss sold at the sale of the estate of the Duke of York, Christie's London, 30 March 1827, lot 22, where it was described as 'a silver-mounted single blunderbuss, formerly Tippoo Sultan's' (Wigington 1992, p.98). Similar firearms are in the Royal Collection (RCIN 67238, 67240 and 67239). Other examples sold at Bonham’s London, 21 April 2015, lot 154 and 155. All of those, like ours bear signatures of local craftsmen who were responsible for their manufacture.
Two related blunderbusses are housed in the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, and exhibited in the recent exhibition More Than a Day as a Tiger (6 August 2025 - 11 January 2026); see Lucien de Guise (ed.), More Than a Day as a Tiger, IAMM, Kuala Lumpur, 2025, pp.166-9).
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