Ottoman Pala

[rand]

Great Post Eftihis!!!

Being made as a gift for a guard offers some possible explanations for the techniques used in the manufacture of these scabbards. Have handled four of these swords and three had earlier blades while one sword with a short dramatically curving blade was newly made when the scabbard was made.

Believe the earliest blade of the four was dated 1714 and the most recent was in the 1840's. The sword dated in the 1840's was a sharply curved short shamshir style blade, the other three blades were all earlier kilij blades. They all had copper scabbards / hilts, that had a silver wash with gold wash over the silver. All had hundreds pf coral and turquoise held in low quality made bezels. All four scabbards were about the same quality of craftsmanship which begs the question of was that craftsmanship of a very similar quality maintained over a 120 plus year span of time? Or were all these swords assembled in a shorter period of time from both older and new at the time blades.

Whats your opinion?

rand