For your consideration is a 16th-18th Century Mughal Persian Leather Buckler Shield (Dhal). A buckler is a small shield gripped in the fist with a central handle behind the boss used in hand-to-hand combat, found in the Indian subcontinent. Provenance: the Owen D. Mort, Jr. Collection. Owen David Mort was an American engineer who amassed an impressive collection throughout his worldwide travels. His collection has included art, artifacts and other historical items from which he has donated to museums at the University of Utah and the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. Donations also include African, Afghan and Asian artifacts. Wicker, leather and wood were widely used to produce shields, which was the kind of protection that Achaemenid (Persian) soldiers mainly relied on. Leather shields are nearly always geometrically round and yet they vary in diameter from about eight inches to twenty-four inches. Some are nearly flat while others are strongly convex or curved. The edges may be flat or rolled back in the reverse direction to that of the curvature of the shield. Dhal shields were either made from metal or hide. The hide shields were made from a great variety of animals found in the Indian subcontinent. The hide shields are were made from either water buffalo, sambar deer, Indian elephant, Indian rhinoceros. This leather dhal/shield is in fair condition, remnants of the rear leather handles are still fastened to ring bolts that pass through the shield and are riveted to metal bosses on the outside. Three bosses are missing, the remaining original metal bosses have an almost serrated appearance design edge. The leather is very rigid and hard, the original incised decorations are faintly still visible in the areas of the missing bosses. Measures 9.5" diameter, weight 1lb.