Tipar (crescentic axe) for a Dervish
Culture
Ottoman
Datedated 1807–1808
Mediumsteel, wood, brass
Dimensions127 × 68 cm (50 × 26 3/4 in.), 3 lb (weight)
ClassificationsArms and Armor
Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection
Object number2014.251
DescriptionStrongly curved crescentic axe blade terminating in a sharp point without false edge or reinforced tip. The metal is slightly iridescent. The blade section is wedge shaped, with a flat back edge. The blade is formed with a strong socket at mid-length with flat back and a triangular hole for the haft. The basal end of the blade has a slipped terminal prolonged in a flattened eyelet to secure the end to the haft where it is held by an iron nail. The haft is of brown-stained hardwood, of circular section, and is beveled at the top where it engages the socket. It is tapered at the other end to receive a conical ferrule, or butt-cap, now lost. On the back of the haft are brass suspension rings. These are in crude iron loops like lynch-pins, which pass transversely through the haft and are beaten over opposite. While the haft may be old, it clearly does not belong with the head--it fits the socket very poorly.
The head is decorated with thin, incised lines that border the back edge and top and bottom of the socket. At mid-length, emanating from the socket on both faces is a fig-shaped cartouche flanked by a pair of palmettes and addorsed volutes below. To either side of these, and extending onto the head, parallel with the back edge are addorsed stylized foliate tendrils with leaved terminals. All of the decoration seems (prior to cleaning) to be inlaid with a keyed-silver or niello (?) filler.
ProvenanceEx collection Angelo Peyron (Florence, Italy). Purchased by the Museum on 6 November 1954, from Savoy Art and Auction Galleries (NYC), sale no. 450, lot no. 864. Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.
On View
Not on view
about 2000–1750 BCE
