BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)<br /> Pic: Bonhams/BNPS<br /> <br /> Tigers burning bright - Astonishing £6 million sale of Tipu Sultan treasure.<br /> <br /> This gem-set sword with tiger's head pommel, expected to sell for only £80,000, it went for an astonishing £2.1 million.<br /> <br /> Wellington's first worthy adversary on his way to Waterloo.<br /> <br /> An incredible bounty of exotic artefacts looted from the defeated Indian ruler who set the young Duke of Wellington on the road to his Waterloo victory has sold for a whopping £6 million - Six times its estimate.<br /> <br /> The stunning relics were raided from the palace of Tipu Sultan in the heart of India in the wake of defeat by British forces led by 30-year-old army colonel Wellington in the late 18th century.<br /> <br /> Wellington, then a young Arthur Wellesley, earned his spurs and learned skills fighting Tipu that would later prove vital in defeating French dictator Napoleon on the battlefields of Waterloo over two decades later.<br /> <br /> In the wake of the victory, British soldiers pillaged the city and Tipu's palace, helping themselves to the wealthy sultan's gold, jewellery, arms and armour, clothing and even furniture plundered from the palace.<br /> <br /> London auctioneers Bonhams staged the auction of more than 30 items collected over three decades by British Tipu expert Robin Wigington.
{}