OF TIPU SULTAN INTEREST: A FINE 18TH CENTURY GEM SET GILT FINISHED INDIAN TULWAR, 84.75cm sharply curved damascus blade, the fine gilt hilt with trefoil terminal langets, the crossguard with tapering domed terminals engraved with flower heads, the scrolling knuckle guard with peacock's head terminal, the eyes set with rubies, characteristic Tipu form snarling tiger's head pommel, the eyes set with rubies, the whole finely chiselled and finished in matt gilt with tiger's pelage, further decorated over all with polished gilt bubri or tiger stripes, contained in its red velvet wrapped wooden scabbard, the three mounts decorated with chiselled tiger's pelage and bubri or tiger stripes to match. A small section of scabbard edge parted and velvet frayed or lacking, patches of rusting to blade. The gold bubri or tiger stripe design is associated only with Tipu (Tipoo) Sultan himself, weapons for his own personal use and selected weapons in his armoury. Known as the the Tiger of Mysore, Tipu had once stated that it is better to live one day as a lion than one hundred years as a jackal. Feared and hated by the British, Tipu Sultan had been portrayed as a cruel and violent man and oppressor. However he was loved and revered by many in India as an ambitious, courageous and innovative leader. Unlike his father who had come from humble origins and was illiterate, Tipu was a highly educated man with a library of around 2000 works, many of which he had commissioned himself, and had a great love of firearms and the mechanical invention. He employed European weapon makers to come to India and work for him, particularly French gunmakers largely due to his good relations with the French. They not only made weapons for him, but also instructed his own craftsmen in the European tradition. His weapons were particularly advanced for the day, including flintlock repeating mechanisms based on the systems developed by Italian maker Lorenzoni. He fine-tuned the rockets designed by his father Haidar Ali, using the superior quality hammered iron in Mysore to create advanced and highly effective weapons that inflicted many significant losses on the British troops during the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. Sold by Sotheby's, 16th July 1993, Marine Pictures and Nautical Works of Art, lot 258, from the estate of Captain William Moffat of the East India Company. This auction included six swords from Moffat's estate, five of which were Presentation swords presented to him for various acts of valour. The sixth was this sword which it is quite probable that he received when he first reached India round about 1800/01. Following the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799, Tipu's palace and treasury were plundered and many weapons bearing his bubri or tiger stripe decoration were available at this time. Enclosed by the river Kaveri not far from Mysore in Southern India lies the island town of Seringapatam (Srirangapatna). Named after its main temple Sri Ranganathaswamy which was first consecrated in 984 AD and is dedicated to the Hindu god Ranganatha (a form of Vishnu), Seringapatam has been a place of pilgrimage and worship for Hindus for centuries. In the mid 18th Century a young and assertive Muslim commander called Haidar Ali (1720-1782) altered the balance in Seringapatam which would last for around four decades. Probably originating from the migrant Arab Quraish tribe, Ali had worked as a soldier and military leader for the ruling Hindu Wodeyar dynasty in the area. He was a successful leader and gained power to such an extent that eventually in 1752 he usurped Nanjaraj and Devraj and around 1761 declared himself ruler of Mysore and took Seringapatam as his capital city. Over the coming years Haidar Ali's initial wish to be allied to the British East India Company which held power in a significant area of Southern India, turned to a hatred of the British and their actions. This led to the four Anglo-Mysore wars, the first (1767-1769) which was won with relative ease by Ali. Ali died of cancer in the middle of the Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-1784) and his son Tipu Sultan who was commanding part of his army at the time, returned to take leadership of Mysore. The Third Anglo-Mysore war (1790-1792) brought the first defeat for Mysore against Cornwallis, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Seringapatam and a curtailment of Mysore's borders. The Fourth Anglo-Mysore war (1798-1799) saw Tipu Sultan, encouraged by words of support from Napoleon, once again attempt to rid India of the British. In 1799 two British armies, one led by Colonel Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington), and an army from Bombay marched in to Mysore and besieged the capital Seringapatam. After losses on both sides, the attacking forces breached the defending walls. Tipu Sultan took to the battlements dressed in fine clothes, and with a small number of close servants and a variety of guns taken from his armoury. He fought bravely and defiantly, firing muskets loaded and handed to him by his servants, and incurring several wounds, the first being a musket ball in the right side near his chest, the second a further musket ball near the first, and then further various wounds. His horse was shot from under him. He initially resisted attempts from his followers to persuade him to step down from the fight, but eventually retreated. After the battle, with the British victorious, his body was found near the Water Gate of Seringapatam. He was buried on 5th May at the Gumbaz next to the bodies of his mother and father, and the core territory around Seringapatam and Mysore was restored to the Indian prince of the Wodeyar dynasty from whose forefathers Haidar Ali had originally taken the territory.
