With a broad curved blade formed with two recessed channels converging towards the tip, the elaborate forte with an openwork design in deep relief of a two-bodied yali above a pair of birds with makara heads grasping with their claws the stem of a feathery palmette, the cylindrical haft punctuated by three series of raised flanges with openwork bands of beasts and fleshy foliage within registers of stylized petals, the haft further chiseled with bands of plump palmette scrolls and another of quatrefoil motifs.

Provenance: The Edith & Stuart Cary Welch Collection. Sotheby’s London, 31 May 2011, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part Two, Arts of India, lot 98, estimate of GBP 4,000 – 6,000 or approx. EUR 7,600 – 11,400 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Stuart Cary Welch, Jr. (1928-2008) was a celebrated curator, lecturer, and collector of Islamic and Indian art. He began collecting drawings by Indian artists as a boy. He earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Harvard University in 1950, then did graduate work there in classical art. Because they offered no Indian or Islamic art courses at the time, he became an autodidact. His first paid position at Harvard was in 1956, as honorary assistant keeper of Islamic Art at the Fogg Museum. He later developed one of the first curricula for Islamic and Indian art. He was curator of Islamic and Later Indian art at the Harvard Art Museum, and from 1979 to 1987, he was also special consultant for the department of Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Welch taught at Harvard until his retirement in 1995, and he donated much of his collection to the school. The remainder of his personal collection was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2011. On 6 April 2011, a single page from the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp (The Houghton Shahnameh) of which Welch was the leading scholar, was sold for 7.4 million pounds.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear and manufacturing flaws. Few losses along the blade, nibbles to extremities, pitting, and signs of weathering and erosion - consistent with age. The bronze with a naturally grown dark patina.

Weight: 1,321.3
Dimensions: Height 43.5 cm

The haft and forte of this spearhead bear the exuberant decoration that characterizes the weapons from Tanjore in this period. The designs are those adopted on contemporary carved architectural masonry and combine purely decorative with symbolic motifs. The curved form of the blade with recessed channels is frequently employed on spears of South India. Several of these South Indian spearheads were brought back from India by Lord Clive, though none decorated in a manner as elaborate as the present example.

Literature comparison:
A number of similar examples survive and appear to be related to the group of ankusa probably produced in Mysore, the finest of which is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. See Robert Elgood,Hindu Arms And Ritual, Arms and Armour from India 1400-1865, 2004, p. 21-24, figs. 2.1-7 and p. 194, fig. 19.13. Further examples of this type are in the collection of HM The Queen at Sandringham House, Norfolk, which were presented to the Prince of Wales by the Princess of Tanjore during his visit to India in 1875-76. See Purdon Clark, Catalogue of the Collection of Indian Arms and Armour at Sandringham. The Indian Collection presented by the Princes, Chiefs and Nobles of India to His Majesty King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, on the occasion of his visit to India in 1875-76..., 1910, figs. 46, 47, 103, 104, 156, 236, and 237.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams London, 27 November 2019, lot 399
Price: GBP 6,062 or approx. EUR 8,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare South Indian spearhead, late 16^th/early 17^th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related curved blade and tiered haft with similar relief and bands of foliage. Note the size (52 cm).