The plain steel crutch elegantly shaped into a figure of eight culminating in a lotus bud, the ends of the plain haft decorated with carved leaves, the pommel screwed into the haft and set with a hidden fullered stiletto blade, the pommel cap with unusual wheeled mechanism

Two further stilettos with hilts of a sinuous snake-like form terminating in a flower-bud are in the Furusiyya Collection, where they are dated to the seventeenth century (Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight. The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Skira, 2008, pp.204-5, nos.194 and 195). One is missing its blade and scabbard and the other is missing the scabbard. This example retains its blade and scabbard.

Literature

H. Ricketts and P. Missillier, Splendeur des Armes Orientales, Paris: Acte-Expo, 1988, p.83, no.133 (not illustrated)