Ottoman Hançer with Niello Decoration

This Ottoman hançer features a typical I-shaped grip. The lightly curved, watered steel, double edged blade is decorated with a panel of gold foliate inlay. The scabbard is decorated in layers of silver gilt, providing a richly textured surface. A meshed vegetal pattern, created from stylised fleur-de-lys descends from the locket and arises from the chape. Mirroring this motif, the belt loop is in the shape of a fleur-de-lys. The scabbard terminates in an oversized, fluted ball with an angular knop at the end, with hatched niello decoration. 
This Ottoman hançer resembles a group of similar daggers which were looted during the 1683 Siege of Vienna and related battles of the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars (1521-1791), known as Türkenbeute (Turkish loot). Part of the famous Karlsruher Türkenbeute, a very similar hançer is held in the Badisches Landesmusem Karlsruhe (accession no. D 269). At 35.8cm long, the Karlsruhe dagger is roughly the same size as the present example with similar decorative features. Amongst the Türkenbeute at the Kunsthistoriches Museum Wien (Vienna) is a hançer of the same form with a silver gilt scabbard and similar vegetal ornamentation (accession no. C 105). Others are housed in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (accession no. B.O.-3089) and the Furusiyya Collection, Vaduz, Liechtenstein (inv. R-420), dated to 1682, and stamped with the tughra of Mehmed IV.¹ 

n.b. accession nos are clickable links

[1] See The Arts of the Muslim Knight: The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection. Milan/ New York: Skira, 2008. pp. 165-166.