Any Info On This Mystery Spanish-made Jambiya???

[Chris Evans]

Originally Posted by Marc

At that time, the government-run cutlery factory in Toledo, which provided all the blades for the Spanish Army needs, plus some exports, had also a product line of high-quality "reproductions" of historical weapons. Some of them were, among other things, characterized by the abundant use of damascening and bluing in their decoration. The Toledo damascening was (and still is) of very good quality, and a well established industry by itself.
This is a perfect example of such production, and the date, 1903, is perfectly consistent with it. They are considered "art works", and although very probably the blades are made to the best of the abilities of the factory cutlers (which was quite high), they are not really supposed to be ever used. I've seen many of those "luxury items", although my experience is more abundant in "reproductions" (let's say "artistically interpreted") of Spanish 17th c. left hand daggers, as well as hunting knives and plug bayonets.
This one seems to be in quite a good state of conservation, also. conservated, by the

Marc,

Wonderful information - Thank you.

Do you know if they made any suits of armour?

Cheers
Chris

[CharlesS]

Ditto...great info, and thanks!!

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Chris Evans

Do you know if they made any suits of armour?

Weeeell... technically... kinda. I mean, I'm not aware of any armour suit from that period wearing the mark of the Factory, although they surely had the technical capability to make them. Also, in the period catalogues and price lists from the Factory that I've been able to take a look at, I don't remember seeing any armour suit announced. On the other hand, there ARE decorative armours from that time, some of them very probably produced by any of the many small workshops that worked for the factory as contracts. But their quality, as reproduction suits of armour go, was usually quite low.

[Chris Evans]

Originally Posted by Marc

Weeeell... technically... kinda. I mean, I'm not aware of any armour suit from that period wearing the mark of the Factory, although they surely had the technical capability to make them. Also, in the period catalogues and price lists from the Factory that I've been able to take a look at, I don't remember seeing any armour suit announced. On the other hand, there ARE decorative armours from that time, some of them very probably produced by any of the many small workshops that worked for the factory as contracts. But their quality, as reproduction suits of armour go, was usually quite low.

Marc,

I imagine that many armament factories must have had the capacity to make armour because cuirases and elaborate helmets were still worn by cavary right to the end of the 19th cntry - Anyway, I asked because some years ago in Buenos Aires, I saw a magnificent repro full harness and the owner thought that it may have been made in Spain in the late 1800s, but wasn't sure.

If you still have access to those catalogues, any chance of scanning them in?

Cheers
Chris

[Marc]

Yes, but the reproduction of an antique set of armour needs more than just the functional capacity to make it, and a lot of artisan handwork is unavoidably involved in its production. A lot of the 19th -early 20th c. production of antique armour is made using essentially the same tools that were used in the 14-16th c. It's just the lack of familiarity with the details of the product what shows painfully to the trained eye, and still, some of the reproductions were nearly impossible to distinguish from originals. On this regard, the products of the Munich dealer Ernst Schmidt, an antique dealer and provider of reproduction antique weaponry is often quoted. The pieces coming off his workshop were very well able to stand by themselves for what they were, but with the more elaborated work, specially regarding armour, when compared with the originals the difference was pretty obvious.

On the other hand, some work was extremely close to the originals. Just take a look a the pair of gauntlets below (author unknown). The picture doesn't make them justice, they are exquisite. They were auctioned recently and I was able to examine them up close. Wouldn't they had been a copy of the pair of gauntlets belonging to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, held in the Royal Armoury in Madrid, I don't think anyone but the best of experts would had be able to tell them for reproductions based only in the quality of the workmanship.
In short, lousy armour was done everywhere, and kept being done until today, but excellent, quality work was also done in many places, although a lot less in numbers... also as today.