ADAM'S Country House Collections Day II - 14th October 2025

“The Tiger of Mysore has fallen, and with him an empire’s last hope.” So ran the cry at the storming of Seringapatam in 1799, when Tipu Sultan met his end and the East India Company claimed its greatest prize. With that victory the conquest of Seringapatam entered legend, and with it the rise of men like Sir Barry Close (1756–1813). This exceptional sword, crafted by the celebrated London makers Ray & Montague, was presented to Close for his gallantry in the Company’s campaigns against Tipu Sultan. A blade born of empire, honour and war, it remains a vivid reminder that “it was not by gold or silver, but by steel, that dominion was won in India” (James Mill, The History of British India, 1817). The siege of Seringapatam was the decisive action in the struggle between the Company and its most formidable adversary, Tipu Sultan, the self-styled “Tiger of Mysore.” Tipu, who famously declared “I would rather live a day as a tiger than a lifetime as a sheep”, had waged four wars against the British and their allies. A brilliant general and innovative ruler, he modernised My- sore’s army with French assistance, established silk production, state trad- ing networks, and introduced reforms that transformed the regional econ- omy (see W. Kirkpatrick, Select Letters of Tippoo Sultan, London, 1811). On 4 May 1799, as the cannons fired their last shots and the waves of battle receded, Tipu lay dead amid a heap of wounded, killed fighting hand to hand in the press of combat. His fall brought an end to over three decades of resistance to the Company’s expansion in southern India. The assault was led by General David Baird, with the left wing under the command of Colonel the Honourable Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington. The storming of the walls, Tipu’s death, and the subsequent surrender of his sons became iconic subjects in British painting and litera- ture, vividly captured in works by Mather Brown, Henry Singleton and oth- ers (Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770–1825, London, 1979, pp. 422–426). For the Company, victory was both strategic and symbolic. Mysore was partitioned, prize money distributed on a scale that reflect- ed the magnitude of the conquest, the Commander-in-Chief receiving £100,000 while private soldiers were awarded £7 each (T.E. Hook, The Life of General, the Right Honourable Sir David Baird, 1832, pp. 231–232), and presentation swords of unprecedented value were commissioned for the campaign’s leading officers. Together with the 200-guinea sword award- ed to Major-General Baird, the 300-guinea Close sword demonstrates the scale of the Company’s patronage and the ceremonial splendour through which it honoured its chosen servants. John Ray and James Montague were established in partnership as gold- smiths, jewellers and sword-cutlers at 22 Denmark Street, Soho, from 1800 until 1821. Both had been senior craftsmen in the workshop of James Morisset (1738–1815), one of the most important goldsmiths and enamell- ers of the late eighteenth century. On Morisset’s retirement in 1800, they took over his premises, registering their joint maker’s mark “IR over IM” at Goldsmiths’ Hall on 4 May of that year. The firm’s recorded output was small: only around thirty swords bearing their joint mark are known today, together with a handful of freedom boxes, enamelled tokens and other gold “toys.” They did not operate a retail shop but worked for London’s leading jewellers, Rundell & Bridge, Jefferys & Gilbert, Robert Makepeace and Green & Ward among them, who in turn supplied the East India Com- pany, civic bodies and colonial assemblies with presentation swords and regalia. By the mid-eighteenth century, the small sword had become less a weapon of war than a jewel of rank and ceremony. Elaborate hilts in gold and silver, richly enamelled and set with diamonds, were the province of goldsmiths rather than sword-cutlers. Their splendour carried the symbolic weight of honour and reward, rather than the practical thrust of combat. The sword presented to Barry Close is among Ray & Montague’s earliest and most important works. Valued at 300 guineas, it was authorised by the Court of Directors on 7 May 1800 in recognition of Close’s services as Adjutant-Gen- eral during the Mysore campaign. Completed in London, it was dispatched aboard the Mornington in December 1800 and formally presented to Close at Fort St George, Madras, in October 1801. Together with Baird’s 200-guinea sword, it illustrates both the Company’s scale of patronage and the refinement of Ray & Montague’s workshop. Its lavish use of diamonds, enamel plaques and painted vignettes of Serin- gapatam extend the Morisset tradition of commemorative decoration into the new century. Other swords by the firm were made for Admiral Lord Keith (1801), Sir James Saumarez (1801) and the Duke of Gloucester (1801– 02). Their last recorded sword was made for Admiral Lord Exmouth in 1816, after which the partnership was dissolved in 1821. Ray & Montague remain among the most celebrated goldsmiths and swordmakers of Regency Lon- don, their works encapsulating both the ceremonial splendour of the East India Company and the martial culture of Britain’s imperial expansion. Barry Close entered the service of the East India Company in 1771 as a ca- det in the Madras Army. A gifted linguist, he mastered Persian, Hindustani and Marathi, and soon earned a reputation as one of the Company’s most effective intermediaries with Indian rulers. Appointed Adjutant-General in 1790, he distinguished himself throughout the campaigns against Tipu Sultan, culminating in his role at Seringapatam in 1799. His organisational ability and steadiness under fire earned the admiration of his commander, Lieutenant-General Harris, and it was for these services that the Court of Directors resolved to present him with this 300-guinea sword, one of the most costly testimonial arms ever authorised by the Company. Close’s later career was equally distinguished. From 1801 to 1811 he served as Resident at Poona, where his diplomacy secured British influence over the Peshwa, and later as Resident at Hyderabad. Created a baronet in 1812, he died the following year, regarded as one of the Company’s most trusted sol- dier-statesmen during a transformative era in its rise to power (C.E. Buck- land, Dictionary of Indian Biography, London, 1906). The Barry Close sword is a key survival from this pivotal moment in Brit- ish imperial history, one of only thirty recorded works by Ray & Montague and one of just two produced for the Mysore campaign. As an object it combines the artistry of Regency goldsmiths with the ceremonial theatre of the East India Company at its zenith. As a relic it embodies the fall of Tipu Sultan, the Company’s consolidation of power in southern India, and the honour bestowed upon one of its most loyal officers. Tipu’s death on the field, fighting to the last amid the smoke and carnage of his capital, lent the conquest of Seringapatam a mythic quality for contemporaries. If its opening cry was “The Tiger of Mysore has fallen,” then Barry Close’s sword preserves that moment still, a jewel of steel and enamel fashioned to com- memorate victory and service. Image: Major General Sir Barry Close (1756-1813) by Martin Archer Shee, Courtesy of Manchester Art Gallery