An interesting Yataghan sword-stick for comment & analysis!

[mariusgmioc]

This is a very interesting piece and I must confess I have never seen anything like it.

The hilt may be some kind of ivory (walrus ivory?) but we will need better photos to make an educated guess.

However, characteristic for a yataghan is not only the eared hilt but also the recurved blade with a single cutting edge on the interior. To the extreme, the blade can be straight, but it still has to maintain the general shape with a single cutting edge.

In this case, the blade appears to be a multi-faceted rod with no edge and a pointy tip, more like a stiletto. That's why I wouldn't call this a yataghan but a "sword-stick with yataghan hilt."

Regarding the attribution, for yataghans it is generally very difficult to pinpoint to a geographical area because within the Ottoman Empire skills and smiths traveled freely. Sometimes, for some particular pieces the geographical location can be pinpointed accurately, but this is generally if the yataghan has some revealing text or some characteristic style/decorations, which isn't the case here. Moreover, in this case the only clearly recognizable Ottoman feature are the scales, while all the rest appears quite European.

So, the eared scales could have been taken from an older yataghan and mounted on an European blade simply for their exotic appearance, since the mounting style is quite different from the Ottoman style and looks very European.