Lance (Sang) Butt
Full Description:
A steel butt for a south Indian lance or spear known as a sang. It is of large proportions, very heavy, and would have been used to counterbalance a spear head such as the one formally in the collection of the late Richard R. Wagner Jr.
The Royal collection at Sandringham also have several examples of sang heads, and one particularly fine example (RCIN: 38142) dated late sixteenth- or early seventeenth century was presented by the Princess of Tanjore.
Many notable collections contain sang heads, finely made with high quality steel chiseling for which the South Indian workshops are justly famous. However these heads have mostly lost their original shafts, and even those with hafts seldom retain an appropriate butt. This particular butt is delightful and would compliment the finest head. Of conical form with two bands of applied vertically-fluted and bulbous mouldings each secured by pierced and chiseled iron washers, identical with that surrounding the opening for the haft. The butt has a smooth polished patina.
Pinchot, Arms of the Paladins, 2014, p.12, cat.no.1-8
Elgood, Introduction essay to Arms and Armour at Sandringham, Reprint 2008.