Early Yataghan for Comments and Discussion

[TVV]

I feel very fortunate to have acquired what I believe is a relatively early yataghan. The reason I think it is early is because of the blade profile - shorter and wider than later examples. I will expand on similar examples later.





It comes with a scabbard, which is covered in black leather but never had any metal furniture of any type. The blade is made of 4 rods of the so-called Turkish ribbon with a soft T-spine and a harder steel edge, with a maker's stamp. The grip scales are of elephant ivory, with small years and tri-lobate pommel. The band between the scales and the bolster are silver over tin.





There are two yataghans with similar blades, both of which are associated with the Great Turkish War. The first one is in the Vienna Military History Museum in the Turkenbeute exhibit, while the other one is in the Karlsruhe Turkenbeute Collection (#140 in the published catalogue).

[TVV]

The museum yataghans do not seem to have their scabbards, but there are other similar yataghans with scabbards which tend to invariably be covered in black leather, sometimes with similar decorative motives as on mine, but with silver chape and mouth fittings. A friend of mine in Bulgaria has a similar one, and the interesting part is that the scabbard fittings are hallmarked, but not with tughras. The hallmarks look quite European - does anyone recognize them?

I wonder if these fittings were added in a Central European context to a yataghan that was taken as trophy during the Great Turkish War.

[gp]

congratulations with your yataghan!
What confuses me a little is the different bolsters (indicated as #4 in the first picture) versus all the above pictures.
Any data on lenght of the blades or the age of the 4 pieces?

I took the liberty to put them together and can not figure out the difference versus age....but that could be my limited knowledge
The blade is very nice and in excellent condition, with a beautiful stamp.
Specially if I would follow your case with regards to being an early yataghan

some interesting info can be found in this publication:
https://www.iaras.org/iaras/filedown...0016(2017).pdf

unfortunately I could not find anything to provide more insight in publications from the museums in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and recent ones by Zoran Marcov, Head of Department National Museum of Banat,
Maybe other forum members can assist in this most interesting topic...

[TVV]

Good question on the lengths. Mine is about 62 cm overall. My friend's as the tape measure indicates is 57 cm overall. Number 140 in Karlsruher Turkenbeute is 75.5 cm.

Here are some more from Oriental Arms sold archive with a a length of 71 cm:


And another one, also 71 cm:


And a third one, with a similar hilt and bolster to mine, 60 cm long:



The bolsters are all over the place, and the hilt also vary from tri-lobate to square to very small ears. A couple of the ones above have what looks like a heart shaped frog button on the scabbard mouth, which would be unusual for an Ottoman weapon but much more in place in an Austrian context.

[gp]

thank you for the most interesting additional information!
I really do like the mark on your bolster very much ☼
My compliments, a very good "catch"☺

[TVV]

My friend has another one of these potentially earlier yataghans, but it is much bigger, at about 80 cm overall. Another difference is the dark horn hilt and the blade decoration, even if the blade also has layers of Turkish Ribbon.





It is similar to this one that was sold by Sotheby's many years ago. I will also attach a picture in case the link stops working or the image is removed.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions...0/lot.260.html