A few Kothimara. with pix.

[spiraltwista]

I was recently asked a questian on another forum about Royal Kothimara.

Perhaps some of you may like to see my perspective on them?


I have my own veiws which others may agree or disagree with & luckily numerous actual facts to add. {as I like facts added as well as opinion & conjecture & personaly always find it usefull to recognise which is which. & what doesnt stand up to scrutiny.}

I will add new photos once taken to an article to help illustrate the facts around Royal & Regimental kothimaras.

But heres a few snippets for starters.

& a few of my kothimoras.

l to right.


1,
Laminated tibetan style blade with very old coin silver work.

2,
This type of Dia Chirra was issued in 1919 to 10th GR officers. {But some were older.}


3,
1986 to Gurkha major.

4,
Brass kothi 1930s to 1960 same type as given by Nepali king to Sir Edmund Hilary.

5,
1920s or 30s made Regimental cerimonial kothi sent back to England in 1939.

6,
pre.ww1 issue style kukri with excelent silver work by regimental sarki.

7,
pre. 1928 Royal Kothimara {could be late late Victorian?}

8,
pre. 1928 Royal Kothimara{ probably post 1902.} made for someone of Prime ministers rank.





Royal Kothis are kukris made for the Nepalese Royal family & goverment , instantly identifiable & dateable {to a degree.} by the fact they have the Royal coat of Arms on them, Some have been given to vising Royalty & occasionaly Ammbasadors or officers of great known & proved bravery.. Lesser people recive lesser quality goods.


I would suggest that pre ww2 They Royal Armourys would have thier most skilled armorours make the kukri & then all the fittings & scabard would have been done by one of the Royal jewlers. {sunwar.} {Why get a neighbours Pekinese to bark when you have you own doberman.]

A couple of Royal Kothimaras.

 

[spiraltwista]

They dont seem to have had specialist ones made since the late 1940s & for the ones given as gifts today they just buy in any silver or brass kothi from the main sellers in Nepal, Sadley most kothi made since the 1950s are very poor, Many are made of .999 pure silver {which sound good to the inexpierienced.} foil, rather than thick sheet jewlry silver { Sterling.} or even hard coin grade silver, so the modern ones are incredible soft to speed up production & any illusian of thickness in the silver is usualy done by clever Repouse work.

Presuably the Royals realise the modern work is nowhere near the quality of thier pre.ww2 pieces so the keep their originals for thier personal wear.

The kothi quality can be assesed in several ways I think.
One, Remove & weight the silver so you know whether its 4 oz. of thin foil or 8 + oz. of solid substantial sheet silver. { For a medium sized kukri}. If one does not have the skill & ability to dissasemble & reassemble the scabbard the simple thumb & nail test will do although slighty more distructive to the poorer specimens.

Simply press hard with your thumb near the base of the kothi or on a raised repouse area. Poor quality kothi will immediately dent & deform with very little pressure.. The nail test is hook you nail under the pointed top tipn ext to the nail in the kothi & gentley lever away. One made of the. 999 silver foil will instantly bend. {but of course you can then push it back flat again.} Personally I have only ever kept one scabbard that wouldn't pass that test. {It carrys the dedication to the Gurkha Major from his colleagues inscribed on the blade. it was made in 1986.}

Two, Close up photos of the silver work to see the Sunwars skill , both as their artistic ability to form the symbols, gods, flowers, animals etc. & two to see whether any fret work is roughly punched out or whether each hole is carefully hand filed.

three, test the silver, It should be Sterling at .925 anything above that is just to soft & weak. {ask any jeweler. {but can be rolled realy thin. & workled like plasticine.} Some of the realy oldest pieces are made of about .850 grade coin silver & are very strong & made with great skill.

four, Sadley many kukri were put together by people who stole the silver from under the pockets at the back of the kukri. This seems even more common today than it was in the 30s. I realise that $1 of silver is a days wages to a Sunwar or Sarki but it is still theft & in 10 or 20 years when the pockets become detached, one is left with an ugly glaring hole to remind one that they have been ripped off.

Heres an example that appears to have been done by the sarki.

When the sunwar does it {either for his own benifit or under orders from greedy middlemen. it will have a neat sqare cut or circle out in the middle of the silver.

Heres one where the hole was later patched with silver by someone who cared enough to repair it.

To test for this if you are unable to remove the pockets without damaging them, push a thin knife blade or similar gently under the pockets from the side. The sound & feel changes when you reach the spot where the silver was either cut or torn from it.

Of course one doesn't usualy find such low quality, insulting & disrescpetfull work on Royal Kothimara or those made by Regimental Sunwar for senior officers or anyone respected. {Quite the opposite in fact}


Hidden beyond the pocket of a Royal kothimara by the sarki to be discovered in years to come is this honourific for someone of Prime minister level. []

& A dragon of abundance & plenty hidden behind this pre. ww 1 Regimental Kothimara.

What a nice thing to find in years to come compared to an ugly hole where the silver was cut from. []

O yes I nearly forgot to mention, regiments always had thier own sunwar who would usualy do the silver work on either the officers personal kukri or on one bought for the purpoise.

Since the 1950 most army kothis are bought in from the typicle mass production Nepali sellers who evryone buys there kukri from. But those for Col. & above where still bieng made by the Regimental Suwar as recently as the 1980s. {In England .}

Many Regimental Kothimara were worn by the mess attendants & the senior bandsmen in daily wear the army, not just given to retiring Officers.

Some kukri with silver scabbard fittings were worn in ww1 &the 1920s.. But they Just had minimal silver throat bands & chapes.

It was common practice amonst the Nepali gentry & warriers pre. Indian mutiney though to wear kothimoras. {These are the ones made of hard coin silver.}

Heres an example of very early coin silver work.

 

[spiraltwista]

The other steel kothimaras I have seen which are from from the late 19th century , which are all typicle good Indian workmanship sometimes have arsenal marks from Jaipur etc. armoury on thier spines etc. showing that they were actuly typical Indian Princly states pieces .

The cheqering is high quality Indian work as anyone familar with Indian firearms , swords knives etc. will realise.

 

[spiraltwista]

 

[spiraltwista]

Here yet again to help illustrate the differance is English work.

Regimental kothis.

The differance in silver work cab be easily seen in the hand, harder to see in photos I think?

 

[spiraltwista]

Pre,ww1 reputadly for a Colonel.

Typicle 1920 or 30s Regimental. thick silver but not much finnese in the work.

 

[spiraltwista]

Both together.

1986 of thin silver. {thicker than some foil ones though. but sadley a hole cut out under the pockets.}

& sadley a clearly royal kothi with all the gold stolen from it.

& Heres another silver Royal Kothi of Prime minister Shamsher J B Ranas Kothimaras. {same fellow in painting posted by Simon.} {He probably had quite a few kothis!}

& a couple more paintings illustrating Royal kothimaras in wear.

King Shah & a Prime minister whos name I need to check.. []

Edited & updated with pix. []

Spiral.

 

[Kevin the grey]

Words fail me .

 

[tedwca]

Very nice. Thanks

 

[not2sharp]

Now entering drooling mode.... :thumbup:

n2s

 

[M. Taylor]

Those are fantastic! Thanks for sharing and the histor lesson. Where do you find all this stuff?

 

[jmings]

Thank you ever so much for bringing these rare beauties to the forum.

 

[not2sharp]

Where do you find all this stuff?

It's all over the place; it just takes many years to recognize it, and many more to pull it together.

n2s

 

[Bill Marsh]

Wow
Wow
Wow
WOW!

 

[spiraltwista]

Thanks Guys, glad you like them, as N2s says {bieng an top collecter in his own right. Bill too of course .....}{ I am glad your drooling N2S I can think of at least 3 kukri. youve beat me to... }

They come from many places.

with these, they include, L to right.

1, Local farmers pannier market, {thats just pure lucky to the core... }

2,3,4 ebay over last 4-5 years.

5,Leading English auction house, complete with letter from Officer sending it home to parents for "display in the drawing room." in 1939.

6,7, ebay , think other collectors must have been on holiday or ill. Or as N2s says you need to know what your looking at.

 

[spiraltwista]

8, Local militaria fair customer who stated in front of me he had better stuff to sell in his car than the dealers did. {later found out he was major dealer but didnt get on with the fair holders. }

9,From fellow collecter & peer John Powell , who found it in an Antique shop in a mews Antique collective off Regent street in London a few years ago.

Spiral