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Originally Posted by A.alnakkas
I have seen this on ebay and wanted to bid on it. The craftmanship is excellent and Dom is right, it did have patina in the auction photos if I remember correctly.
Now the decoration is defintly good and the blade appears to be well made certainly not like the new indian stuff but the shape of the whole piece is unlike any Qajar piece I have seen..
It is possible that its Indian work but real work, not touristy. One thing for sure Indians borrow art from Persians so its all possible.
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Hi Lotfy
I absolutely agree that the craftsmanship on the chiseled decoration of the scabbard and hilt is 1st rate.
BUT! Stylistically it reminds me of the work of the Indian silversmiths of Calcutta.
It just doesn't look like Qajar work to me at all.
I've had a look at the original eBay auction:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-ISLA...item20cdd92501
The 'patina' such as it was, still looks 'new' to me.
Even in a few decades, bare steel will darken, but I don't see any evidence of that on this dagger.
Even on the blade I can't see any indications of repeated drawing and withdrawing having left 'polished' lines on the grey etched surface.
In my humble experience that configuration of suspension loops would be more indicative of modern Arabian Jambiya rather than Qajar Khanjar.
It doesn't look to follow the usual method of being 'tucked into' a sash or belt hung from, as we'd usually see. It looks like it should be tied over a belt like some Jambiya.
Here is an example of a chiseled steel dagger of the Qajar style showing the type of style and patina that I'd expect.
Someone please come and show me another example of a dagger of the type that Dom has with concrete provenance?