Recent Indian sword acquisitions help with marks

Nihl · 29th August 2022, 09:53 PM

Napoleon, with all due respect I don't think you will find much information asking about these marks here. Looking at all 3 of the swords you have posted here, it is pretty clear to me that all of them are from the 19th century, based on a variety of factors, including the marks present on the blades. The thing is, by the 19th century indian sword makers had adopted a practice to show that their blades were of higher quality than the rest - by copying those markings found on european sword blades. What mattered to these smiths was more that their blades *looked* like european ones, rather than that the symbols that they used to do so actually meant anything themselves.

This is to say that, most of the marks you show in your posts here don't actually have any meaning behind them, they're just imitations of european marks.

As for the sword with the "gate" on it, I think Jim did a good job commenting on that one. The one thing I'd like to note though, is that a rivet through the hilt isn't an exclusively northern practice, but one you see quite a bit of in the south as well, particularly on tamil tulwars. In general, riveted hilts seem to be common anywhere there was a particularly heavy european colonial presence.

29th August 2022, 09:53 PM	#2
Nihl Member Join Date: Feb 2018 Posts: 90	Napoleon, with all due respect I don't think you will find much information asking about these marks here. Looking at all 3 of the swords you have posted here, it is pretty clear to me that all of them are from the 19th century, based on a variety of factors, including the marks present on the blades. The thing is, by the 19th century indian sword makers had adopted a practice to show that their blades were of higher quality than the rest - by copying those markings found on european sword blades. What mattered to these smiths was more that their blades looked like european ones, rather than that the symbols that they used to do so actually meant anything themselves. This is to say that, most of the marks you show in your posts here don't actually have any meaning behind them, they're just imitations of european marks. As for the sword with the "gate" on it, I think Jim did a good job commenting on that one. The one thing I'd like to note though, is that a rivet through the hilt isn't an exclusively northern practice, but one you see quite a bit of in the south as well, particularly on tamil tulwars. In general, riveted hilts seem to be common anywhere there was a particularly heavy european colonial presence.