European 'yataghans'

[Jim McDougall]

This example just posted by Eftihis in Ethnographic on 2012 thread updates and perfectly illustrates that these unusual yataghan style swords were not simply 'one off', but were apparently produced in a number perhaps for one of the European units described.
On this note the langet type appendage in brass, where on the example from 2012 has only the empty space left.

The downturned cross guard is taken from Chinese jian forms presumably, and in the 18th century in Europe these Oriental styles were extremely popular.
On small swords in particular the decorative motifs and styles of shakudo and chinosserie were notably used.
There were even Chinese artisans in European locations in many of the centerts of weapon production.

The unusual hilt styling has the finger stalls seen on certain Eastern type swords such as the kastane, but that feature seems to derive from late 16th century Italian forms of storta. The pommel has been suggested to resemble karabela.

On this example, note the inscribed devices etc. on blade, which is as seen straight, and these correspond more to the Caissagnard style from France I had noted earlier.

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

This example just posted by Eftihis in Ethnographic on 2012 thread updates… On this example, note the inscribed devices etc. on blade, which is as seen straight, and these correspond more to the Caissagnard style from France I had noted earlier.

An observer’s comment on an inscription on a schiavona once alerted me to the now extinct Bosnian Cyrillic language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_Cyrillic. ”After the Ottoman conquest, Bosnian Cyrillic was used, along with Arebica, by the Bosnian Muslim nobility, chiefly in correspondence, mainly from the 15th to 17th centuries (hence, the script has also been called begovica, "bey's script"). Isolated families and individuals could write in it even in the 20th century.” So what we thought were occult symbols may in fact be part of unfamiliar or now extinct script. Several of the letters inscribed on the sword seem to match letters in Bosnian Cyrillic.