Rare Shield

123. There is a small group shields related this one in the Pitt Rivers museum that were collected before 1909, purchased from Frank Godfrey an antiques dealer with a shop based in Oxford. Another was possibly collected by Henry Balfour in the field before 1911. number 1911.10.2. The shield here is painted hide over a very thin wooden core with iron handles. It is one of ten or less known still to exist. This example is larger than all of the others in the Pitt Rivers, there is one in the collections of the Met that is roughly the same size. The quality of the construction and the painted decoration front and back, is exceptional. The Pitt Rivers inventory records them as Pakistan, Sindh and so maybe these were Baloch?

19th century.

52cm diameter.

Sold.