id small pretty letter opener

[gp]

Originally Posted by vitorvt

It's clean for now, it was a bit dirty. Apparently the black stains won't come out.
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Notice the snake coiled around the cable; what I thought was a crack at the top of the blade is actually the snake coiled up in 3D.
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forget about the black stains; sometimes it is not possible to "clean" every kind of contamination on a blade but what is most interesting to me is to see 2 different type of "saints" on the blade.

Mother Mary one one side but who would be the other? Normally one only sees Christ, but this one is not Christ...
Never seen that double combination...

But what is the male figure exactly holding in his hands? A spear...? Perhaps St George and the dragon...?

Strange to me is also that there is no kind of Coat of Arms, reference or indication of either the religious nature or aristocratic background of the male figure present...
That indication would normally be present one way or another if one looks at drawings, etchings, coins or medails of the like ...from the Middle Ages to the present...

As for the lady and dragon; only I can think of is ancient Byzantine St. Margaret emerging from the dragon...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_the_Virgin
https://www.unexpectedtraveller.com/st-margaret/

also the "tulip" like decoration above their heads shows similarities with Eastern decorations , be it Ottoman, Byzantine or other of that region.
Although that contradicts the type of blade ....unless it might be Hungarian, Transsylvanian and influenced by the Eastern hemispheres ...
But that is me speculating ...and as we all know; assumptions is the mother of all - beep- ups...☺☺☺
and to talk stones language...is it only my imagination running away with me...?
Well..."you don't always want what you get " is the title of a Stones song as well☻☻☻
So who's next..?

Really lookin' forward to find out more and solving this most interesting issue