An Ottoman or Hungarian turquoise-set sword and scabbard, Turkey or Hungary, 17th or 18th century

The present sword bears a strong resemblance to a group of luxurious Ottoman arms dating from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century which are fitted with silver-gilt hilts and mounts of similar form and set with jade plaques. See for example a koncerz sword now in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. no.V.O.-2797); a sword now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no.1978.145a, b; Alexander 2015, pp.158-60), and a saddle captured at the siege of Vienna in 1683 now in the Czartoryski Museum, Krakow (inv. no.XIV-534; Kangal (ed.) 1999, pp.202-3). The close adherence to these objects in design, combined with the use of more readily available material in copper alloy, suggests that the present sword is a provincial interpretation of these imperial weapons, either for an Ottoman dignitary or potentially for a victor at Vienna who saw the magnificent Ottoman weapons captured.

A sword of comparable form with silver-gilt mounts and set jades was sold in these rooms, 8 October 2014, lot 132.