Subject: sawār cavalry
Culture: Kannada
Setting: British / Maratha wars, Mysore 1767-1799
Object: guns
* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor
"Flintlock Blunderbuss Steel, wood, gold, silver Indian (Seringapatam), dated 1793/94
This gun was made in Seringapatam, the capital of Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), the ruler of Mysore. Tipu's armories employed many European craftsmen and his firearms reflect the most up to date technology. As the self-styled 'tiger of Mysore,' Tipu was preoccupied by tiger imagery. On this gun, tigers prance or hunt on the magnificently damascened barrel; the cock of the flintlock is fashioned as a tiger head; and the silver mount is stamped with stylized tiger-stripe marks. Following the storming of Seringapatam by the British on May 4, 1799, during which Tipu was killed, this gun and many other weapons were taken to Europe as booty."
