Hello, my name is Emanuel and I am a flyssa addict

Emanuel · 20th April 2010, 11:58 PM

I'm done school so I figured I'd go out an get some flyssa.

The top one I got a while ago. It's in almost perfect condition, 36" blade. It seems to be the most refined of the three.

The middle one has an enormous 40" wide, much heavier blade, almost 1cm thick. The decoration appears to be somewhat cruder than the first. It lost the brass sheet decoration it once had on the hilt, evidenced by the tacks that are left in the handle. It's nice to see the actual construction of the hilt, the tang is very thin compared to the blade and bolster. Chregu showed a very similar flyssa recently, but his does not show any trace of tacks on the hilt and it may have never had brass decoration.

The bottom one is the crudest I find. Its decorative elements are larger and simpler. It still has brass on the hilt, but the panels are crudely decorated. What's also interesting is the proportion of the handles. The handle on this piece is smaller and more slender than on the other two, even though the blade is almost as heavy as the middle one and just over 39" long.

The width of the blade makes me wonder...perhaps the narrower blades are simply worn down from many sharpening and were once wider like the middle one.

Overall I'm very torn about what these three flyssa can tell us about time and manufacture. Are the differences indicative of different craftsmen, styles or decline over time? Camille Lacoste-Dujardin has conducted an artistic and thematic analysis of flyssa's decorative treatment, but her work Sabres Kabyles (1958) does not include photos of her sample, some of which are provenanced and dated.

Comments?
Emanuel

20th April 2010, 11:58 PM	#1
Emanuel Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,242	Hello, my name is Emanuel and I am a flyssa addict I'm done school so I figured I'd go out an get some flyssa. The top one I got a while ago. It's in almost perfect condition, 36" blade. It seems to be the most refined of the three. The middle one has an enormous 40" wide, much heavier blade, almost 1cm thick. The decoration appears to be somewhat cruder than the first. It lost the brass sheet decoration it once had on the hilt, evidenced by the tacks that are left in the handle. It's nice to see the actual construction of the hilt, the tang is very thin compared to the blade and bolster. Chregu showed a very similar flyssa recently, but his does not show any trace of tacks on the hilt and it may have never had brass decoration. The bottom one is the crudest I find. Its decorative elements are larger and simpler. It still has brass on the hilt, but the panels are crudely decorated. What's also interesting is the proportion of the handles. The handle on this piece is smaller and more slender than on the other two, even though the blade is almost as heavy as the middle one and just over 39" long. The width of the blade makes me wonder...perhaps the narrower blades are simply worn down from many sharpening and were once wider like the middle one. Overall I'm very torn about what these three flyssa can tell us about time and manufacture. Are the differences indicative of different craftsmen, styles or decline over time? Camille Lacoste-Dujardin has conducted an artistic and thematic analysis of flyssa's decorative treatment, but her work Sabres Kabyles (1958) does not include photos of her sample, some of which are provenanced and dated. Comments? Emanuel Attached Images