TIBET or BOUTHAN, 18th-19th century Rare royal Bhutanese sword The steel blade is straight with a steeply sloping tip, featuring a pattern of three straight grooves engraved along its length and meeting near the tip, characteristic of Bhutanese blades of this period. The scabbard has a wooden core covered with a silver assembly, the central part of which features a very finely and richly chased decorative plate treated in repoussé, depicting on one side a dragon depicted from the front amongst teeming clouds, and on the other a geometric decoration of medallions, flowers and wave friezes, surrounded on the upper and lower parts by three decorative friezes with stylised flowers and petals. The silver handle is finely chased and openworked in the imitation of canework, accompanied by leather straps with the same weave, ending in an end-piece with honeycomb decoration on one side, and lotus scrolls with small turquoise cabochon inlays on the other. Length: 86 cm Blade length: 68 cm Bibliography A similar sword is reproduced in Warriors of the Himalayas, Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet, Donald J. LaRocca, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 171, plate 73.