Sultani Hindi Imphal Sinking Collector Piece

The greatest of oud collections was no doubt that assembled by the Diwan of Sultan Qaboos, if there was a passionate oud collector with a blank cheque through the peak years of oud - it was him.

The Royal treasury when it unveiled itself, provided a look into agarwood as if it were time capsule, with the heaviest and darkest of solid log like pieces sometimes lying along the floor. It was filled to the brim with precious goods, some were inevitably going to be gifts, like much of what was gifted throughout the previous decades - yet this was something different altogether.

Never before had the best become available, promptly the wealthiest of collectors flocked to Oman, desperate to get their hands on anything they could, some of the auctions even demanded a deposit alone of one hundred thousand dollars.

This extraordinary piece comes from those collections, yet what makes it better than them all is the quality of this specimen, unlike most SQ woods which were polished and painted to an extent in order to beautify the wood as was the custom at the time, this piece is free from any such alterations.

Never before have we seen such a perfect example of true wild Hindi wood, the likes of which is no doubt from a tree centuries old, with a truly wild resin pattern and almost jet black throughout with the most resin dense form we've seen in an Indian piece.

The jungle this piece hails from is the Nha Trang of India - Imphal, a region renowned for the finest and oldest pieces, the greatest collections throughout the gulf are Imphal Hindi batches.

A source of contention in the oud community is the formation of kyara in Hindi oud, for those not familiar kyara is the highest grade of agarwood often traded for thousands of dollars per gram, and found in the oldest trees in tiny quantities usually. The hunt for kyara usually centres on Vietnam, some believing it to only be possible in a handful of species.

Most Indian agarwood today is farmed, and there are virtually no old trees, the likes of which could ever harbour kyara, and with most of the vintage batches in the hands of those who not even know or care for its existence - there are very few opportunities to survey pieces for it.

The macro images of these pieces and the aroma upon the heater truly exemlpl