Dagger ID - unknown date and culture

[E Farrell]

Hello all!

I am working on conserving this dagger for my anthropology department, and part of what I am doing is attempting to identify the piece. I'm going to throw some photos on here, then put every shred of info I know at the moment at the bottom. Any information anyone has about the culture or date of origin, the designs, other weapons using similar combinations of materials, etc would be greatly appreciated.



(Apologies for the glare; some previous person had the bright idea to apply a varnish to the top half of the blade. It doesn't photograph well.)






As far as information:

Nothing is known regarding the date and culture of origin. This is the most pressing concern to me at the moment.

The blade itself is reasonably poor quality. There are obvious marks left from the forging process, and there are two parallel cracks lengthways on the blade, each about 2cm in length. These are faults in the material; they do not appear to be use damage. The assorted nicks on the edges are in some cases from use, in some cases from corrosion. The blade ends in a simple rat tang.

I cannot identify the decoration on the blade. It is done with a mixture of shaped punches and engraving. I can't find any actual writing; only geometric patterning. It reminds me vaguely of some 19th century Ottoman knives I've seen, but it's not an area I know well enough to really identify. Or it may be something else entirely; I haven't got a clue.

The handle is interesting. The upper portion is simply wood wrapped in leather. Although the leather is loose, the wood substrate is the only portion of the handle which does not move freely around and along the tang. I am reasonably confident that this part is original.

The great big orange lump in the middle is not amber, but is an organic precursor thereof. Probably copal. I can't narrow down a geographic source for it without taking a sample out and spending more money than is available for analysis. I am reasonably confident this portion is original.

The lower section of the handle is composed of several pieces. There are two champlevé enamel pieces which are copper alloy, and have a few traces of gilding left. Most of the are of these two pieces is supported underneath by a spacer, but about 1/3 of the larger one just has fabric wrapped around the tang underneath it. The 'pommel' piece on the end looks like a little gear made from sheet metal, and bares traces of paint. It is riveted directly onto the end of the rat tang.

I am not confident that the lower section of the tang is original. The substrate below the champlevé pieces is uneven and doesn't fit properly, and both pieces will move several millimeters in all three dimensions. The proportions look wrong to me, but I know there are legitimate ethnographic weapons out there with some pretty strange appearances, so I can't rule out this being original.


Additionally, and very important for identification, this piece was taken into the anthro collection in the 1980s on bequest from a private collector. That collector had a tendency to "restore" objects without any regard to original function or appearance, marry different partial objects together, and occasionally create outright fabrications.


My gut instinct is that the champlevé pieces are later additions after an original lower handle was lost, but I don't know. I don't know what culture any of this is likely to come from, I don't know enough about post-medieval weapons anywhere to be able to rule out that this is just a strange, reasonably modern ethnographic blade, and without that knowledge it seems perfectly plausible that this might be an original - if odd - construction.

Any information anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.