A scabbard mount for the tip (chape), scroll tip, dark green nephrite jade inlaid with white nephrite jade and rubies in gold, Mughal, 18th century, formerly in the Guthrie collection

A mount for the tip of a scabbard, fashioned in one piece in dark green nephrite jade. It is a somewhat elongated kite shape with one of the long sides being gently concave and the other gently convex so that the tip tends to one side before curling into a scroll. In profile, it is wedge-shaped with the scroll tip being the narrow end of the wedge and from the open end, the profile is biconvex. The wedge has been hollowed out from the wider end to give an elongated cavity which extends down towards the tip. The opening has been shaped to give a three-scalloped edge to each face, with the central lobe being pointed to form the opposing corner to the scrolled tip. The dark green nephrite jade body has been decorated with a flower and leaf design constructed from inlaid, carved sections of white nephrite jade in gold settings together with gold wire. There is a small round ruby cabochon mounted in a reflective, closed-back setting set into each side of the scroll.

Transferred from the India Museum in 1879

This scabbard mount was originally in the Guthrie collection and was bought by the India Museum in 1868. It was subsequently transferred to The South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria & Albert Museum) in 1879.

Charles Seton Guthrie was an important collector of eastern coins and Mughal Empire jade and rock crystal objects. He was the second son of Scottish parents, both of whom were from noble and landed families, and his father worked for the East India Company in Calcutta.
Guthrie most probably developed his interest in jade and rock crystal when he studied geology as a 17 year old cadet in 1825 in Addiscombe, and he joined the Bengal Engineers in 1828.
Through his family’s established connection with the Inglis and Lister families, he became acquainted with Harry Inglis and his Anglo-Indian wife Sophia (nee Lister). He may well have received gifts of objects that Harry had acquired as proceeds from his Indian military campaigns. Harry was the son and heir of George Inglis who owned Inglis & Co., a large Indian trading company.
During his time in India, Charles Guthrie enhanced his collections with acquisitions financed by his army pay and also income from properties in his late mother’s estate.
He subsequently retired at the honorary rank of Colonel in 1857, although he returned to England in 1855, at the same time as Harry and Sophia, due to having 2 years of accumulated leave.
Following Harry’s death in 1860, his embalmed body was returned to India, accompanied by Sophia and Charles, where it was interred in an above-ground tomb. Sophia inherited Harry’s vast estate, which almost certainly contained many fine jewels and Mughal objects. Sophia began living together with Charles in Calcutta, bearing him a son in 1862. Following a financially significant arrangement being agreed by Sophia with Charles, the two eventually married in 1863 with the family returning to England a short time thereafter.
Sophia died in 1866, with Charles being named as an executor with instruction to liquidate her un-itemised English estate which included “jewels, trinkets and shawls”.
Soon thereafter, in 1868, Guthrie sold part of his collection of jade and rock crystal objects to The India Museum and his large coin collection to a museum in Germany. Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie died in 1874 and the remainder of his collections was sold at auction, in accordance with the terms of his will, with many objects finding their way into other important collections and then subsequently to the museum.

This Mughal scabbard mount, or chape, was made within the Mughal empire in the 18th century. It is the piece that covers the end of the scabbard to protect the tip of the blade and also to protect the wearer from accidental injury. It has been fashioned from a single piece of nephrite jade which is a hard and durable material that requires skill and patience to work successfully, especially when cavities have to be excavated. The dark green nephrite body has then been recessed and inlaid with carved white nephrite, rubies and gold. The superb quality of the workmanship as well as the materials used suggest that it was made within a court workshop. The locket mount that went with was also acquired by Guthrie and is in this museum:
02532(IS).
The mount from the scabbard of a sword or dagger was made within the Mughal empire in the 18th century. It was bought with the locket from the same scabbard -02532(IS) - by the Indian Museum with other hardstones from the collection of Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, all of which were transferred to the South Kensington Museum in 1879.

02533(IS)