A SOUTH INDIAN SWORD (PATA) Lot n° 12

A SOUTH INDIAN SWORD (PATA), 16TH/17TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY ARCOT, with straight tapering double-edged blade of hollow-diamond section formed with a reinforced tip, iron hilt of katar form, retained by three rivets including a pair over fluted brass washers, extending over the forte with a pair of long shaped langets with chiselled foliate terminals, a pair of border-engraved waisted side-bars with pointed terminals rising to a bud-shaped finial, border-engraved recurved frontal guard with Yali head terminal, two pairs of additional bars joining the side-bars to the frontal-guard, and a pair of strongly moulded grip-bars, 90.5 cm blade¦¦Roy Elvis Catalogue Number C90.¦¦The distinctive stylised Yali head is related to another example in the Vellore Museum, previously recorded on the Arcot armoury, Tamil Nadu. A katar with a related hilt is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 36.25.905). See Elgood, 2004, p. 146. ¦¦Highlight from the Roy Elvis Collection (1944-2022)¦