Sinhalese Kastane sword with rare Ivory makarra lion hilt 17th or 18th century

A wonderful Sinhalese Sri Lankan sword ‘Kastane’ of early type 17th or early 18th century. Although hilts of these swords can be found made from a number of material including wood, horn silver, brass etc those with ivory tend to survive less freqently due to the inherent fragillity of this precious material. The carving to the lion hilt is finely done with mane, eyes and open jaws all depicted in traditional singhalese tradition style, very fine condition and colour to the ivory rich and golden. The metal guard parts are extremely finely chiselled with scrollwork and inlay of bronze and silver, various makarra or lion heads adorn the quillon terminals and a similar larger makara or bird heads surmounts the flared handguard to the front of the hilt. The blade is of simple steel, slightly curved and with a patination overall attesting to the great age of this example. A break to the bottom of the front handguard has been fixed in earlier life with a small brass plate rivetted to the inside, a nice feature and part of the swords life history. A small crack to the very top of the pommel where the tang is rivetted is old, stable and small. A rare collectors piece, indo persian, ceylonese, sri lankan