
One of the glories of the Wallace Collection is the armoury and pride of place in this exhibition is a splendid watered steel sword with walrus ivory handle – it belonged to the Sikh warrior king, Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), Lion of the Punjab.
By the age of 22, this diminutive, pockmarked youth with one dodgy eye had seen off invading Afghans, captured Lahore, been acclaimed Maharaja of the Punjab and taken Amritsar, the Sikh holy city.