Join Arthur Bijl for a revealing conversation about the forgotten meanings of arms and armour, once a global symbol of male status, fashion and identity.
Arthur draws upon the magnificent Wallace Collection to challenge our understanding of what we think of today simply as ‘weapons’. He tell us the stories of legendary swords and bejewelled jaggers like those of Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, the surprising love poetry found on many of them, and the gifting swords and daggers as symbols of loyalty and allegiance.
Arthur Bijl is the Hutton McRoberts Assistant Curator of Ottoman, Middle Eastern and Asian arms and armour at the Wallace Collection in London. He is an art historian who studied at the Courtauld Institute and the University of Oxford.
He was a recipient of a Barakat Trust Grant to enable the conservation of historic items from the Wallace Collection.
This podcast is part of Converging Paths, kindly supported by the Altajir Trust and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s Education Programme.
