Yet another Tulwar

Jim McDougall · 22nd July 2016, 09:26 PM

Hi Miguel,
First of all, thank you for the kind words in your earlier post, I am most grateful.

To clarify, in the discussion linked, the Wilkinson Sword Co. among others were suppliers to the British colonies in India, most of the others were either subordinate to or contracted to Wilkinson.
The design of the tulwar (Indo-Persian) hilt was of course a development from iconographic Indian hilt forms actually from more ancient times, which evolved at a yet distinctly undetermined period. The progression was quite subtle, and reached its more familiar form probably around the 16th c.

In the British Raj, there were an ever increasing number of native units in the British army, and supplying them was a huge undertaking. By the second half of the 19th century, while variations of regulation British military patterns prevailed, many units were allowed to choose their own favored types. Naturally the 'tulwar' was highly selected.

Actually Wilkinson and the Mole company, a subcontractor, produced both British patterns as well as the Indian style tulwar hilts. I once had brass tulwar hilted examples marked MOLE.

With the military style sabres produced (known as the Paget style) these had blades in either 31" or 33" lengths. I cannot recall details but these were apportioned to different districts, Bengal and Madras. There were numbers of other variations in Wilkinson records.

Meanwhile, in earlier East India Company times (pre 1857), there are numbers of Indian hilted (both khanda and tulwar) swords mounted with British military blades. These are hybrids from either captured or discarded British swords and in some cases the whims of flamboyant British officers in some of these native units, with any number of probabilities.
These practices and situations prevailed throughout the Raj.

In most cases the British blades are marked, while various European imported blades may or may not be marked. Solingen in the later years of the century had numbers of producers who produced volumes of 'blanks' for export to various markets.

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22nd July 2016, 09:26 PM	#15
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,192	Hi Miguel, First of all, thank you for the kind words in your earlier post, I am most grateful. To clarify, in the discussion linked, the Wilkinson Sword Co. among others were suppliers to the British colonies in India, most of the others were either subordinate to or contracted to Wilkinson. The design of the tulwar (Indo-Persian) hilt was of course a development from iconographic Indian hilt forms actually from more ancient times, which evolved at a yet distinctly undetermined period. The progression was quite subtle, and reached its more familiar form probably around the 16th c. In the British Raj, there were an ever increasing number of native units in the British army, and supplying them was a huge undertaking. By the second half of the 19th century, while variations of regulation British military patterns prevailed, many units were allowed to choose their own favored types. Naturally the 'tulwar' was highly selected. Actually Wilkinson and the Mole company, a subcontractor, produced both British patterns as well as the Indian style tulwar hilts. I once had brass tulwar hilted examples marked MOLE. With the military style sabres produced (known as the Paget style) these had blades in either 31" or 33" lengths. I cannot recall details but these were apportioned to different districts, Bengal and Madras. There were numbers of other variations in Wilkinson records. Meanwhile, in earlier East India Company times (pre 1857), there are numbers of Indian hilted (both khanda and tulwar) swords mounted with British military blades. These are hybrids from either captured or discarded British swords and in some cases the whims of flamboyant British officers in some of these native units, with any number of probabilities. These practices and situations prevailed throughout the Raj. In most cases the British blades are marked, while various European imported blades may or may not be marked. Solingen in the later years of the century had numbers of producers who produced volumes of 'blanks' for export to various markets.