A COMPOSITE SOUTH INDIAN CUIRASS, 17TH/18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY HYDERABAD, ANDHRA PRADESH

A COMPOSITE SOUTH INDIAN CUIRASS, 17TH/18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY HYDERABAD, ANDHRA PRADESH comprising medially ridged breastplate naturalistically formed over the chest, backplate shaped to the shoulders, each reinforced with cusped turned panels at the arm openings and at the base, the neck reinforced en suite and with a central leaf-shaped moulding at the front and the back-plate with an up-standing neck-defence (pitted, working life repairs), 40.5 cm high This cuirass appears to have been adapted for a larger girth in its working life. Another cuirass of this type, of crucible steel, from the Hyderabad Royal Armoury, is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. No. 29.158.165). Another, in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, is illustrated Alexander 1992, p. 175, no. 108. Both examples have inscriptions recording them in the armoury of the fifth Nizam of Hyderabad (ruled 1762-1803) though their date of manufacture is almost certainly earlier. Roy Elvis Catalogue Number A41