Excellent entries, thank you guys!
It has been a very long time since researching these British Raj items, but it seems I have seen tulwars similar to the one Stenoyab shows. The curious rectangular aperture on the dish seems of course for a sword knot or lanyard. The style of lettering placed on the face of the blade with hyper lettering seems aligned with character of such marking around turn of the century to WWI period.
The MOLE markings on the earlier forms were stamped block letters on the blade back near hilt, much the same as done from early 19th century well through the century on British made blades.
BBJW, thank you especially for that info on Raja Ajit Singh, which really tells me more on those MOLE tulwars I had (wish I still did!). While the Mole blades were typically mounted on the three bar hilts (they rather incongruently were of the more hatchet point type of the M1796 sabres) on the ones made in England, these blades only must have been mounted in India as you note.
|