FIT FOR A PRINCE
he use of animal forms as a motif in knives and short swords dates to the middle of the second millennium BCE but may have reached its zenith, in terms of fine and artistic craftsmanship, in the Indian subcontinent during the 16th to 18th centuries AD. The exquisite animal-head hilts on the pages that follow are drawn from Salam Kaoukji’s (Thames & Hudson, 2017), a magnificently illustrated volume that features nearly 200 objects from the Indian royal courts assembled
