A JADE ELBOW CRUTCH HANDLE

Naturalistic and zoomorphic imagery flourished under the rule of emperor Jahangir who, like his great grandfather Babur, was enamoured by nature and the animal kingdom. His memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, repeatedly refer to the appearance, habitats and habits of various flora and fauna (Jahangir, 1909-1914). He provides anecdotes of his encounters with animals, such as the ibex depicted here, noting its agility (ibid., p.114).

The Mughal fascination with flora and fauna was expressed frequently in painting and drawing, but also through carvings of dagger hilts and crutch handles in jade, rock crystal and ivory produced for courtly consumption. The present crutch handle (zafar takiya) is remarkable both for its delicate carving of the ibex (rang), where even the finest details such as the knotted harness demonstrate its outstanding craftsmanship. The hilt of a dagger in this sale, lot 313, presents another magnificent example of Mughal jade carving. A comparably beautifully observed jade crutch handle carved in the form of two naturalistic blackbuck is in the al-Sabah collection, Kuwait (Curatola et al., 2010, no. 282 p.302).