What: A shotel sword and sheath with a brass pommel, given by Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote

Where: The British Museum, Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG

The catalogue entries read: 

“Shotel forged from iron with carved wooden hilt. The double edged sword is sickle shaped with a central riser and is bevelled on either side towards the the edges.”

“Sheath for shotel made of leather, decorated on the outer surfaces with a layer of red saffian leather tooled with linear and cruciform decorations. The sheath is stitched centrally along one side with leather thread using a herring bone stitch. Around the top edge of the opening is a decorative binding of plaited leather. A leather belt with a large metal buckle is stitched to the top of the sheath. The end of the sheath is decorated with a cast brass pommel, lomi, which is pressed into the tip of the sheath and secured by a band of stitched green leather. The spherical pommel has three concentric bands and a small round finial.”

Detail
Museum number: Af1868,1230.9.a and Af1868,1230.9.b
Date: 19thC(mid)
Acquisition name: Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh
Acquisition date: 1868