Tipu Sword

[B.I]

hi jim,
eloquent and learned, as ever yes, the imported blades were revered locally, and throughout the area. walhouse was quite surprised at the amount found at tanjore. there is mixed feeling as to the true durability and opinion of wootz at the time. we admire its beauty but can but guess at its use as a fighting steel. the importance put on wootz blades at the time can be noted, as can the historian that described its form. but, you can argue this with those that ignored its use on a battle field, both from british accounts and indian. shivajis sword was a genoan blade, and, as you rightly stated, haider ali steered towards imported steel. however, there are many 'tipu' sowrds. some with imported blades and some locally made. windsor has two swords, as do powis castle. there is one in a collection in northern england, one in a private collection in germany. one in a museum in london. all of these offer provenance of the time. they were all handed as gifts to important people by those that led the storming. as all accounts show, tipu's body was found beneath the bodies of his bodyguard, and so any sword picked up then could have been tipus. as he armed his own body guard, and we can assume those closest to him would have been armed in a similar way, there is no way of knowing which was his. looting of that citadel was a free for all, and the important pieces handed in afterwards. there are no accounts of a sword being taken from his hand, and so even the queens sword could have been owned by his closest advisor and not himself.
the bedchamber sword was important because it was well known that tipu owned a collection of swords in his personal armoury, and everyday and different sword was brought to his bedchamber. saying that, we could ask why it was still in his bedchamber and not next to his body? either way, there were enough important names attributed to this sword to give it true provenance.
the sword below is attributed to tipu (along with a katar) and was given to the duke of wellington by his brother in law, the marquis of wellesley (i think, from scrawled notes from years ago). the sword is interesting in that its decoration is of the highest quality, but it holds no motifs associated with tipu. again, the provenance added by wellesly and wellington allow them the benefit of the doubt.
btw, just a personal opinion but i doubt very much the sword in the dehli museum was tipus. i would guess the catalogue tag was right, but the sword was long replaced by another locally bought. pure specualtion of course but pant or kk sharma would not know the difference.