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A RARE CAUCASIAN SHASHKA

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
A RARE CAUCASIAN SHASHKA
Auctions Imperial is pleased to announce our 2013 sale, to be held March 16 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Timonium, Maryland. Over 300 lots of choice antique arms and armor including armor, helmets, shields, swords, daggers, battleaxes, maces, halberds, matchlocks, flintlocks and percussion pieces will be offered. Our fine selection for 2013 includes broadswords, baskethilts, shamshirs, shashkas, palas, kindjals, khanjars, tulwars and spears, as well as chain mail and breastplates. This sale will also include important swords and daggers from the Greek War of Independence and the armor of the K...
Circassian work, the hilt and scabbard mounts of silver, finely engraved and nielloed on a polished ground, the design emulating the friable silver galloon or braid with which Circassian arms were typically embellished; a characteristic seldom encountered, typical of earlier work. The lightly curved and fullered blade well balanced, with traces of pattern-welded construction. The wooden scabbard covered in textured hide with panels of red velvet, the silver mounts engraved and nielloed en suite with the hilt, with two trapzoidal mounts meeting at the center in “shalvar” configuration. Mid 19th century. Leather and velvet worn. A very similar example belonging to the Caucasian Collection of the State Historical Museum, Moscow, appears in E.G. Astvatsaturian, Weapons of the Caucasian Peoples, St. Petersburg, Atlant Publishers, 2004, p. 258, fig. 2. Overall length 92.2 cm.
Condition III