Shah Jahan's gold dagger is sold for £1.7m

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's golden crusted dagger was sold on Thursday for £1,700,000 at Bonhams' Indian and Islamic sale in London.

However, the auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer.

The 16-inch dagger, which was part of the Islamic and Indian art and artefact's owned by the late Belgian textile businessman Jacques Desenfans, was expected to sell for between £300,000 and £500,000, according to a pre-sale estimate.

The whole Desenfans collection finally sold for just under £3 million. Desenfans collected Islamic, Indian and Southeast Asian arms and armour, early pottery and works of art for over 50 years.

The inscription in nasta'liq script on the blade is the most detailed of all the inscriptions found on any of the known group of Shah Jahan's personal objects. It has the emperor's name, his title, and the place and date of the dagger's manufacture.

The blade also depicts the parasol, an emblem found on blades from the imperial army and those of princes, which signified the dome of heaven, and which when carried above the head of a ruler symbolised his exalted state and his role between God and more ordinary mortals.

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