Running wolf on Timor sword

Jim McDougall · 29th October 2024, 09:34 PM

IMO this is NOT a local blade, but as I noted either Solingen or a German maker situated in Netherlands made it. Local makers would not have reproduced either the wolf nor especially the date (the numerals are following the exact character of Solingen examples).

What is interesting is whether or not the blade form was intended for trade in the manner of many blades in the 19th c. which were destined for colonial markets i.e. takouba and kaskara North Africa; Spanish motto blades for the Americas.

These kinds of situations were one factor of creating the European Armoury as the use of European blades in ethnographic weapons was commonplace. The work by Briggs (1965) on European blades in Tuareg weapons is a most valuable work on European blade markings.

Fascinating example! Thank you for posting!

29th October 2024, 09:34 PM	#5
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,940	IMO this is NOT a local blade, but as I noted either Solingen or a German maker situated in Netherlands made it. Local makers would not have reproduced either the wolf nor especially the date (the numerals are following the exact character of Solingen examples). What is interesting is whether or not the blade form was intended for trade in the manner of many blades in the 19th c. which were destined for colonial markets i.e. takouba and kaskara North Africa; Spanish motto blades for the Americas. These kinds of situations were one factor of creating the European Armoury as the use of European blades in ethnographic weapons was commonplace. The work by Briggs (1965) on European blades in Tuareg weapons is a most valuable work on European blade markings. Fascinating example! Thank you for posting!