Tibetan shaffrons are relatively rare, the majority of surviving examples having been acquired by museums in the early twentieth century. This shaffron is by far the most elaborately decorated example known. The quality and execution of its lavish gold and silver damascening rank among the best Tibetan decorated ironwork of the kind, suggesting that it would have been owned by a high-ranking general if not a king. Carbon-14 testing one of the leather laces resulted in a date range of 1450 to 1650, which coincides almost exactly with the last two secular Tibetan monarchies: the Rinpung (1435–1565) and the Kings of Tsang (1566–1641).

Detail: close up