Beautiful Indian breastplate Steel India, Deccan, Hyderabad, dated 1192 AH - 1778-79 AD H : 44.2 cm This Deccan cuirass consists of two steel plates, hinged together at the shoulders and sides. The pectoral muscles and shoulder blades of a human torso are highlighted by simple ridges in relief or recess. The borders are decorated with friezes of petals, with fleurons in relief on the shoulders and collar. It is part of a small known group of comparable cuirasses, bearing the same inscription and dating under the left shoulder "Sarkar Mir Nizam 'Ali Khan Bahadur" and "1192", probably in reference to the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Nizam 'Ali Khan Asaf Jah II (r. 1762-1803). A cuirass from this group with this engraved inscription is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, under inventory number 29.158.165a,b.

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