Knives from the San Giorgia auction

[Marcus]

After a long wait, the pieces I purchased at the San Giorgia auction arrived. The auction photos and original thread is here:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22641

The auctioneers are based in Genoa and they feature a book titled "Il Costello Genovese". I got a copy of the book in the hope that it might include knives similar to the ones I bought. It did not, so I would assume that the three knives that appear to be Italian are not from Genoa.

As Fernado pointed out in the original thread, based on a figure in "Armi Bianche dal Mediebo all'Eta Moderna", this one with the hooked grip is probably from Sicily.

[Marcus]

One picture shows a British-made “Bowie” knife produced for the American market for comparison.

[Marcus]

My best guess on the inscription remains:
"DO NOT TRUST ME IF YOU DON'T HAVE HEART"

[Marcus]

Unfortunately, the leather scabbard is beyond recovery. Fernando also pointed out in the original thread that Albacete daggers are often misidentified as plug bayonets, as is the case in a current Czerny auction. I provide a comparison picture. I estimate that the proper plug bayonet could be inserted about three inches down the bore of a 70 caliber musket with no more than 1 degree of wobble. You could not put the Albacete as much as an inch down the same bore and there would be at least 4 degrees of wobble.

[Philip]

I've always wondered about the functionality of these handles in terms of the ability to fit into a musket bore and stay in place well enough to allow the sort of movements necessary to fighting with fixed bayonets. The straight taper is somewhat understandable in that a bayonet can fit guns with bore diameters that may vary a bit from one to another (not to mention gunked up with powder fowling from repeated volley firing). But the design with medial bulge seems to be quite unstable as well, and demanding a very close matchup in diameters to allow it to stay fully and firmly seated, or even to enter the bore to any usable degree.

I've read in the literature that a lot of hunting daggers were hilted "in the style of" plug bayonets; the ones with ornamentation on them, especially featuring game animals, are probably such (as opposed to military-issue things meant to be used as bayonets).

Published in Daehnhardt/Gaier, ESPINGARDARIA PORTUGUESA, ARMURERIE LIEGEOISE (1975) are three magnificent hunting guns of royal provenance with hunting bayonets, all of plug type, photographed in place. However, the decoration on the knives doesn't match the workmanship on the barrels, in fact two of the guns appear to be a set due to identical muzzle design, yet the bayonets are totally different. Furthermore, the guns are all dated from the close of the 18th cent. to the opening of the 19th, when socket bayonets had been in military use for around a century.

Frankly, I'd be a tad nervous having to affix any blade with a tendency to wobble on the end of my gun in case a cornered boar decided to charge. Having some backup in the form of an assistant with a boar-spear sounds like a lot better bet, considering the vagaries of firepower from muzzle-loading flintlocks.

[Marcus]

Thinking about it some more, the dagger illustrated in "Armi Bianche dal Mediebo all'Eta Moderna"* is not really very similar to my Coltello. It has the grip on the top of what appears to be a single edged blade, while my piece, with a somewhat wide double-edged triangular blade almost reminds me of a Cinquedea, but not so wide.

*This title translates to “White Weapons from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age”. There are not really very many modern weapons covered and I guess “White” refers to White people, since the catalog does not cover Asian or African weapons.