Brass tulwar hilt for comment please

[francantolin]

Hello dear members,

I was today in a flea market and I found this brass
Tulwar hilt , for the seller, it was a special tool for open wooden boxes .🙃..
Can someone give me an age-estimation for dating it ?
It shows some age and seems well made and there is te rest of wood fixation inside but the decorations with small dots don't seems really old.
it can be 1950 or a real old one

[Pertinax]

Hello francantolin

Hindu-Muslim tulwar hilt, the most common type is Delishahi. This type of hilt was first made in Delhi, hence the name. It is characterized by a round knob on the dome of the pommel, a small disc-shaped pommel, a relatively short handle, a short crosspiece and pointed ends of the crosshairs.

IMHO the second half of the 19th century.

Regards, Yuri

[francantolin]

Thank's a lot Yuri for your message !

And all your precious informations !

I found on the web another 19th century brass-bronze handle with the same kind of ''small dots decorations''
( sure the global shape is totally different)

I post a detailled picture of the pommel.
One last thing: in my hilt , the central tip of the crosspiece looks like the one we often see in the afghan Pulwars hilt.
Can it be more northern-east ( Lahore ) ??
Kind regards

[Jim McDougall]

While very much in accord with what has been said, I'd like to add some notes to this interesting hilt. The open hilt without guard has always seemed to me to be more of a 'court' type weapon, not meant for combat specifically, but more for wear fashionably by officials or persons of station.

The 'delhishahi' designation comes of course from the well known work "Indian Arms & Armor" by Dr. G.N.Pant (1980) in which he made notable efforts in trying to establish regionality in hilt forms. While this indeed did provide a degree of benchmark for descriptive reference to certain types of hilts, none of these 'origins' has been proven as far as I know.

The 'tulwar' style hilt (aka Indo Persian) is a general form with numerous variations, but typically with the characteristic disc pommel. The term 'tulwar' is of course the Indian term for 'sword' collectively, but has become inextricably linked to these Indo Persian hilt sabers.

It has been well pointed out that the pierced langet is very much linked to swords of NW India/Afghanistan and the familiar 'paluoar' designated as Afghan. Actually these are simply a far northern form of tulwar (as seen in Egerton 1885) as these regions in that time were part of India.
Also notable in that regard the hole at center of guard, typically for a rivet and characteristic of these NW India tulwars/paluoars.

The punch/dot (stippled) manner of decoration reminds me of the armory markings of Bikaner in Rajasthan. These were administrative numbers etc using a Gujerati script used in bookkeeping etc. rather than decoration, but the similarity in manner here is interesting.

As for date, these hilts are even harder to date than to classify regionally as they were of a familiar basic hilt form which was used for centuries in India, and with brass adding to the conundrum. I would say optimistically latter 19th, but certainly into 20th century as noted. Many of these weapons were produced for wear in traditional events, celebrations and by individuals in various capacities etc.

[francantolin]

Thank's a lot Jim for
The details and tulwar hilt history,
I just wanted to add the weight of the hilt:
440 grams/ almost 1 pound

Maybe little too heavy for a fighting model
But above all much more than the light weight of the brass hilt I saw in decorations talwars of the mid 20th and up...
Suits well in the hand, that's what I liked when I bought it

[David R]

I have seen similar brass hilts ascribed to the Bikaneer Armoury as munition hilts for issue tulwar. In India Brass seems to be a cheap go-to for utilitarian wares and items.

[francantolin]

Thank you David for your message,

Clearly the dots engravings match with the Bikaneer Armoury.
I.don't think they did brass hilts just for save money .
Iron hilts were not expensive
and we dont find easily old brass hilts ,
If they were that cheap and common, we would find thousands as iron ones tulwar hilts.
In india, Brass allows a lot of artistic skill fantasy from centuries and has strong ritual uses

[David R]

Thanks for the input!