Tawdry Tulwar.

[Jim McDougall]

First of all, Norman, my congratulations to your daughter as well!!!! and to you, you deserve to be unabashedly proud!!!

Great contributions on this trusty tulwar, and its great to see Jens' example as a wonderful benchmark. With the comparable markings it would seem that this tulwar is likely Rajasthan regions and the 1870's into latter part of the century seems quite plausible. If I'm not mistaken, the dotted script on Jens' example suggests Bikaner armoury, which is in Rajasthan.

The interesting symbol enclosed by the sickle marks seems to recall the same practice used by European makers on thier blades. There is still a long way to go in trying to understand the more temporal possibilities in many of the stamped symbols on these blades beyond simple commercial or inventory uses.

David is quite on target noting the Mole blades, and by the 1880's it seems that this producer from Birmingham (working in contract with Wilkinson) was supplying blades to India for the Raj. I believe the cavalry units were issued blades in either 31" or 33" increments, one for Bengal the other Madras, I cannot recall exact details. The blades were more like the standard hollow ground forms and I have seen them, by Mole, mounted in the three bar (Gothic) type hilts similar to the British M1829 light cavalry.

I have seen tulwars by Mole (as noted) which seemed cast white metal hilts from latter 19th century, supplying cavalry troopers of the Native regiments.

There was an outfitter, J. Bourne & Sons, who produced M1796 style stirrup hilted light cavalry sabres, and in research found that one unit that for certain used these was the 13th Bengal Lancers (research with provenanced comparable example so marked).

All best regards,
Jim