A VERY FINE AND RARE TURKISH GOLD, ENAMELLED AND GEM-SET DAGGER WITH LAPIS LAZULI HILT, EARLY 18T

A VERY FINE AND RARE TURKISH GOLD, ENAMELLED AND GEM-SET DAGGER WITH LAPIS LAZULI HILT, EARLY 18TH CENTURY. with tapering single-edged blade of watered steel, decorated on one side with a gold-encrusted scroll and a spray of tulip flowers, gold ferrule (incomplete), faceted hilt of gold-flecked lapis lazuli (one small chip at the base), rising to a beaked pommel set with a ruby in a raised floral gold setting, in its original gold scabbard, the inner face enamelled in polychrome with a vertical arrangement of conventional flowers with sprays of foliage highlighted with green enamelled leaves (the enamel with small losses), all against a finely punched matted ground, the outer face decorated with a large panel top and bottom filled with floral patterns formed of raised gold settings and twenty four and twenty six rubies respectively, all enriched with black and white enamel and each with a single diamond, the middle portion with a further flower formed of six diamonds centring on a ruby surrounded by enamelled polychrome flowers and foliage against a finely punched ground en suite with the inner face, the chape set with a single emerald, the back-edge of the scabbard with a running pattern of enamelled green foliage (losses), the inner face with characteristic locket and retaining its original plaited silver wire suspension cord with fluted bulbous finial. 17.5cm; 6 7/8in. The floral mount for the pommel stone and the outer face of the scabbard are closely related to another gold, enamelled and gem-set dagger of earlier form, taken as part of the booty gathered by the Margraves of Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach now preserved in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe. See E. Petrasch, R. Sänger, E. Zimmermann and H. G. Majer 1991, p. 197, no. 143. Lapis Lazuli is most commonly found in the valley of Kokcha, a tributary of the Oxus, south of Firgamu in Afghanistan. It was visited by Marco Polo in 1271 and has been prized both before and since that date for its rich blue colour characteristically flecked with gold specks of pyrite.