Steel and Gold Axe
Full Description:
A small and slender 19th century Axe from India. The steel head is profusely decorated with fine and precise gold koftgari in the form of ‘tarnishan’ or true inlay, on a blued steel background, a style synonymous with Jaipur. The gold work on the faces extending from central symmetrical flowers and flowering blossoms surrounded by leafy stalks in an overall 'Arabesque' style. Top and bottom edges having entwined kundalini snakes. A small flat hammer opposite the axe blade decorated with a multi-petalled flower also in gold inlay. A tapering wooden shaft with a small turned brass cap with precise knurled pattern.
See Hales, page 305, No.736 for a similar example.