Pair of Malabar Coast Knives

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by KeithJ

Dear Ibrahiim,

The question of using the chests carving to date the knives is an interesting one. It does raise a few questions, the main one being, when did carvings of a similar design appear in the Malabar Coast area? Is the engraved design a 19th century creation or was it copied from an earlier period? Some research into the area of MC pieces with similar designs on other mediums (furniture, fabric, metal wares), might add some insight into the age.

Best regards,
KeithJ

Salaams KeithJ The design carving featured on Malabari Chests is traditional to that region... You may like to go back several centuries to the root of this style but it is somewhat irrelevant. The chests show the same carving style essentially as your daggers ... I have collected Malabar chest for 30 years thus I was delighted to see similar work on these knives. The chest I show is antique and well within the limits for comparison.. though of course other material may well materialize and you may discover similar designs in other wooden objects... furniture and the like.

Here walking past my office there are many people from Malabar and just the other day I looked at the region with some interest as I needed to know what it must have been like say 400 or 500 years ago ~ For this I needed the web..since my library is small. I found an amazing reference which I thoroughly recommend to Forum;

The Project Gutenberg E Book of A Description of the Coasts of East Africa
and Malabar, by Duarte Barbosa

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar
in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century

Author: Duarte Barbosa

Translator: Henry E. J. Stanley

Release Date: December 9, 2011 [EBook #38253]

Language: English

Here you will find the early documentation with descriptions of what it was like on the Malabar Coast in a time frame suitable to Ethnographic Arms enthusiasts on that region... It is an eye opener !

Back to the detective work... Decorative design on unrelated items is just one additional way of getting a reference date bracket on some of these tools and weapons... like everything else it is a guide.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.