A firangi blade or??

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Jens,
These 'firangi' blades seem to have typically been Solingen products, although there were certainly some variants. It seems that although the term 'firangi' is generally considered to be loosely translated as 'foreign', I have read that more specifically it meant 'Portuguese'. This alluded to the Portuguese trade location at Goa on the west coast of India, which was key to the trade with the west.

During the 18th century, which this blade appears by the familiar multiple fullering and the markings, Solingen was producing trade blades for many countries including Spain by this time, and it is not at all uncommon to see the names of famed Spanish makers of earlier times stamped on these blades (although the spellings and syntax of phrases widely varied). The use of the 'x's was also characteristic of these blades from Solingen, and they were placed simply as accents or puncuation in the stamped names or wording, and it seems that they always occurred in groupings of two or three.

The Mahrattas, who of course favored the thrusting khandas, also favored these straight 18th century blades commonly used in Europe by dragoons, and these did indeed have ricassos. It would seem that the trade in this Portuguese station in India accounted for considerable arrival of these trade blades in the 18th century, and I doubt native production of blades would have been worthwhile. I am not certain about subsequent native production of blades in regions where the khanda diffused, but it does not seem that native versions of blades would have carried copies of the markings if there were. Actually I think that most khandas are 'firangi' in terms of the blades and I think most of these we see in collections are 18th century furbishings.
How 'bout a picture of the sword?
All the best,
Jim


Rick, I agree , at first those letters sure did look 'bubbled up' !! and I thought we were goin' straight to Rajasthan!!! -Jim