Unusual Deccan, Engraved, Silver-Gilt Dagger Locket

This unusual gilded silver locket or scabbard fitting for a dagger is engraved on both sides with fine, Mughal-inspired poppy blooms, and decorated top and bottom (again on both sides) with fine gilded silver applied wire work in the form of stylised poppy motifs in-filled with glass backed by multi-coloured foil to emulate jewels (some losses).

It would have belonged to a particularly fine dagger and survives as a particularly interesting example of earlier Deccani silverwork. The gilding has softened with age and developed a particularly pleasing hue.