Description:  Armadillo-tail Tinder-tube (length 4 ins), of unusual size, with large heavy silver mountings, bearing designs of flowers and foliage, embossed; cap surmounted by a diminutive lion statant, in silver; a well-modelled silver fish forms part of the shorter chain; a dove, with wings addorsed, surmounts the lower collar; steel thick, heavy, triangular in shape, with scalloped edges, and sides silvered. [NB: One of several specimens (nos. 870-876)... South American, being made from ... a species of Armadillo which is common in the Andean Region of Chile and Argentina, where the animal forms a regular article of diet ... [All bear] a close resemblance ... differing only in the elaborateness of their silver mountings ...]

Credit Line:  Wilkinson Sword Ltd.

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