Antique Targe -- myArmoury.com

Rob Whitley · Posted: Sat 21 Jul, 2007 8:21 am Post subject: Antique Targe

Help, Need to identify origin, period of manufacture!!!!

Gabriel Lebec · myArmoury Team

Hello Rob, and welcome to myArmoury.
There's not much to work with in your first post... Wink

Why don't you take and upload some photos, talk about where, when, and how you acquired this targe, and relate any information or hearsay that came with it? While we wait on that, you might also want to read myArmoury's article The Shield: Its Use and Development. If it's a true Scottish targe, or if you're just interested, you can find some good books on the subject in this list.
Cheers,
-GLL

EDIT: mislinked shield article, sorry! It should work now. -GLL

Rob Whitley · Posted: Sat 21 Jul, 2007 10:01 am Post subject:

Thanks for the reply . Tried to add photo, thought I had, my image was to big, trying to figure out how to add image. Never had problems adding images before??Help!

Gabriel Lebec · myArmoury Team

Hi again Rob,
Ah, thought that might be the case. There's a forum attachment guide, wherein it states:

Rob Whitley · Posted: Sat 21 Jul, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject: Need Help on TARGE, Origin?

Enclosed are pics of an 18" Solid Leather TARGE. The appliques are metal. There are designs on the face and edges of the item. They appear to have been hand painted in a gold color. On the inside is a 6"x6" red fabric cushion attached to small iron rings that are held in place by the front metal appliques. Apparantly the interior metal rings once were used for attaching the missing hand holding or arm holding devices. Is this TARGE an original or a recent replica?

Allan Senefelder · Industry Professional

This is an Indo Persian shield called a dhal made from either rhino or waterbuffalo hide I would guess. These shields we in use in India/Persia until nearly the end of the 19th century. It looks like a nice example of the type although age is tought to say given how late these were in use.

Terry Crain · Posted: Sat 21 Jul, 2007 4:31 pm Post subject:

Allen is right on the money. Dahls are pretty easy to find, often on e-bay, but buyer beware, a lot of exageration or outright misrepresentation seems to be common with indo persian arms and armour on the web these days, with many modern bieces held out as antiques. Hard to say from pictures, but yours looks quite nice and appears authentic. You can sometimes see info on these at the oriental arms website, as occassionally they have them for sale and are reputable.

Where/how you acquired it may provide some help or clue regarding its authenticity or age. How'd you come by it?

Rob Whitley · Posted: Sat 21 Jul, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject: Dhal

Terry, my mom was quite an early american and old english antique furniture collector. She passed last year and this item was one of many, that I was left in her estate. Of course, growing up around antiques, I am somewhat a collector of authentic old english and american pieces. This one stumped me! Thanks for the info, will follow it up further. Just email the museum in London regarding this piece. Who knows?? Thanks, Rob