Ethnographic Arms & Armour

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Chris, pretty exciting to hear of your interest in British/Indian swords, and my first field of collecting (many many years ago) was British cavalry swords. Eventually I came into the fascinating area between these and those of the native cavalry units of the Raj, then the hybrids of tulwars with British blades and so on.
With this it was inevitable that I became enthralled with Indian arms themselves, but always completely intrigued by the forms made for the Indian units, such as tulwars made by MOLE etc.

Hi Jim,

Always good to meet somebody who has travelled the same path! You are quite right, one interest usually leads to another, and I am no exception. The lions share of my Anglo Indian swords have all been sold to one advanced collector, who is currently writing a book on the subject, which I am much looking forward to.

I have, over the years (and I suspect, like many people here) accumulated and dispersed several collections covering various aspects of arms and armour. The joy for me was always the thrill of the chase, followed closely by finding out more about the objects themselves, the people that carried them, and the culture surrounding those people, at that particular place in time.

I am now fortunate that I can devote more time to the research aspect, and hopefully, in the fullness of time, shall be able to advance our knowledge in one or two areas which are still a little foggy. (Even if it is only a shuffle, rather than a leap!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

It is interesting to know of your example of the P08, and I really would be interested to know more on it. I did not wish to divert the momentum on this thread on tulwars, so perhaps we could start a thread on swords of the Indian cavalry.....definitely a topic worthwhile of its own focus.

A splendid idea. I shall have to search some old hard drives for some images of my Anglo Indian collection, but I am sure I can contribute to the new thread which Jens has so kindly set up for us. Luckily I have retained one or two special pieces, which may be of interest.