| Abstract: |
The Wallace Collection in London contains nearly 1,000 items of princely historic Indo-Persian and Ottoman arms and armour, many made of watered crucible steel (wootz). This paper gives an overview of the metallurgical research being carried out in the Collections Conservation Department towards an illustrated scholarly catalogue to replace at last the current small un-illustrated 1914 publication. This work is on-going, but some interim results were presented at BUMA VII, including the results of XRF analysis, and the use of optical microscopy to investigate the way in which bloomery-iron was often combined with wootz for both practical and decorative purposes. This paper is intended to be an overview of certain aspects of the research into Asian arms and armour currently being carried out in the Conservation Department of the Wallace Collection, Hertford House, London.
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