French army. M1866 bayonet

[David R]

Very nice example, and with the leather frog an'all! Hard to conceive now but "back-in-the-day" a lot of stuff now collectable was seen as having little or no value at all. Bayonets used as fire pokers abounded and post war bring-backs were often seen as mere clutter. I started collecting in the mid 1960's on schoolby pocketmoney. 30 bob for a good kukri, same for an African spear, under a fiver for a rubbish wakizashi. I still have the kukri!

[C4RL]

That's a nice Kukri David 👍

Sadly the bayonet was very likely "cleaned" by my father sometime, I'm guessing before the 70's because as far as I remember the odd time I saw it growing up it always looked like that, kept in an old felt lined gun case.
He also had a 1917 Bolo & didn't know what it was, and this was definitely polished by him 😟. I've managed to i.d it as a Plumb (Philadelphia) from the barely visible markings. Again, different times regarding attitudes to "cleaning"!