Canary Islands Dagger or Spanish Philippines Naval Dirk?

[Ian]

This is a tale of two nearly identical daggers that went to auction within a few weeks of each other. They are the only two examples of this knife that I have seen. The first went to auction on November 23, 2023 and was passed in. The second was sold by a different auction house on January 7, 2024.

1. Described as "19th C Canary Islands Dagger"
The brass guard and pommel clearly have some oxidation suggesting a certain amount of age, as does the presumably brass scabbard. The blade shows some signs of lamination, although it is hard to identify due to some oxidation and grime. The stacked hilt seems to include rings of horn and shell interspersed with iron and brass. The pommel has a depression that would fit the thumb when using an ice-pick grip.



2. Described as "18th–19th C Spanish or Philippines Naval Dirk"
This one has been thoroughly cleaned and looks much newer, but I think they are the same age judging from the stacked hilts. The stacked hilt has the same composition as the first example, and there is a very similar scabbard. There are subtle differences in the toe and throat of the scabbard, the curvature of the brass guards, and in the details of the stacked hilts.



Both knives are said to measure 11.5 inches in their sheaths.

So, what are they? The stacked hilts don't look like those on the traditional Canary Islands naif. The hilts have some resemblance to those seen on Chilean corvo, but the rings seem looser and less varied in composition. I've not seen many stacked hilts from the Philippines, and none that looked like these. The close fitting scabbards might suggest a French origin and the thumb groove on the pommel would also fit.

Where do they come from? If there are two, there should be more. Has anyone else seen these daggers before? I tried a Google image search and got nowhere. I have not searched through Artzi's or Gavin's copious archives, but prior inspection for other items did not turn up anything like this as far as I recall.

Mystery .... ????

[Sajen]

Hi Ian,

It's for sure not a Canary Island knife/dagger and I also strongly doubt that it's Spanish/Philippines. French?

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Hi Detlef,

You are too quick for me. I was still writing the description and getting the formatting sorted out and you already responded. French might be a good idea. I'm not familiar with any French or French Colonial stacked hilts.

Regards,

Ian.

[Interested Party]

Could Chilean origin be a possibility?

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Interested Party

Could Chilean origin be a possibility?

Thanks for the suggestion IP. Yes, Chile is a possibility given the well known stacked hilts on some of the traditional Chilean corvo. As I noted above, the stacks don't look as tight as on a corvo, and corvo generally have more varied materials in their stacks. Nevertheless, Chile is much more likely than the Canary Islands! A Chilean origin would probably not account for the thumb groove on the pommel.

[Ian]

We seldom do this, but given the possibility that this is a European (or European colonial) knife, I'm going to cross-list it in the Euro Forum just in case someone there has more ideas. Unfortunately, replies in the Euro Forum will not show up here, and vice versa. So it is necessary to check both the copy in the Ethno Forum and here. This is one reason why we don't copy threads between forums very often—it's hard to keep track of what is said in the other forum.