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Old 9th May 2008, 04:36 PM   #5
TVV
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Location: Bay Area
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Great points by Ariel.
Stephen, I believe Bosnia is a very good guess regarding your yataghan, as generally, Bosnian yataghans have big ears of walrus ivory. But it could also be from Croatia or Serbia, or Montenegro. There are plenty of yataghans with walrus scales that surface in Bulgaria as well, although one predominantly sees yataghans with dark horn scales (cow and buffalo, but I have seen rhino as well, although it is rare).
To add to the list of books, there is also a German catalogue from 1976 "JATAGANE Aus Dem Historischen Museum Von Kroatien in Zagreb". It has a little foreword with mostly general information and then there are a douzen or so examples in black and white. As most publications on the subject, there is a great deal of attention devoted to inscriptions and their meaning. And those inscriptions, unfortunately, never contain any towns or village names .
Regards,
Teodor
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