Jade in the Royal Collection
Vibrant jades collected from around the world
Dagger and scabbard
nineteenth centuryRCIN 11309
This dagger, with a parrot-shaped hilt, was presented to the Prince of Wales by Pratap Singh, Maharaja of Orchha (1854–1930), at a reception in Agra on 26 January 1876.
In the Indian subcontinent, daggers with carved jade hilts were increasingly worn and exchanged as gifts by noblemen and royalty from the seventeenth century, particularly within the Mughal empire and its neighbouring courts.