Kaskara sword – £8200 at Dawsons.
It follows a Sudanese sword type popular into the 19th century but the use of silver-gilt to the pommel and pinecone grip and gold inlay to panels of Arabic script and a tugra were not translated, similar weapons were commissioned by Sudanese sultans for presentation purposes.
A kaskara of this type sold by descent from Major James John Bramble (1883- 1943), a district commissioner of Omdurman, took £3800 at Mellors & Kirk in 2011 while another dated 1302AH (corresponding to 1884) with a presentation inscription ‘from Sultan Ali Dinar to his son Mazmal’ was sold by Bonhams in 2016 for £3000.
Ali Dinar ibn Zakariya (1856-1916) was the last Sultan of the Kayra dynasty in Darfur, overthrown by the British in 1916.
