British Naval Dagger

[wolfeknives]

I have owned this dagger for some time and have had little luck in finding more information. Any help including approximate value would be very much appreciated.
I assume this is a early British naval dagger. The sheath leather is in excellent condidion. The fittings retain 40% of the gilting. The guard and backstrap retain 90% of the gilting. Unfortunately the ivory handle has several chips at the top and a small chip at the bottom. If I keep this dagger in my collection I would like to replace themissing finals on the guard and the chain from the pommel to guard. Ihave not been able to locate any information on what these fittings should look like.
Wolfgang

Additional pictures to follow

[wolfeknives]

Front View

Front

[wolfeknives]

Pommel

Pommel

[wolfeknives]

Guard

Guard

[wolfeknives]

Handle

handle

[byterock]

Well it is not a dagger it is called a 'Dirk' they come in a large number of shapes, lenghts, and makers.

Looks like and orginal peice and not a modern repro and could be from around anywhere between late 18th to mid 19th c.


Can you give us a closeup look of the blade?

here is one link you might like to look at

Dirks

[wolfeknives]

Blade Detail 1

Thank you very much for the info. and link. Here are some closeup pictures of the blade. It appears to be unmarked. The rust is mostly surface corrosion, the piece has not been cleaned.

[wolfeknives]

Blade Pic 2

Pic 2

[wolfeknives]

Blade Pic. 3

Pic 3

[wolfeknives]

Blade Pic 4

Pic 4
Reverse ricasso area.

[byterock]

The Blade looks good as I can see no 'fake' identifiers jumping out at me and the handle looks like Ivory.

The only part I do not like is the gap between the blade and the hilt.

As for price I have no Idea.

It being unmarked would be normal.

[leigh kitchen]

Is the blade decoration typical of British RN dirks? I would have expected a crown and or royal cypher, and for it to be less "fereehand" in appearance?

[byterock]

Actually my first impression of it was that is was French as the RN Dirks I have seen have very plain blades. But I was not sure.

I was more interested in trying to see if it was a period piece and not an modern Indian made repro so it would be worthwhile doing some research on the item.

There was a really good book written on these and other RN swords way back in the 50s by Bosanquet called 'The Naval Officer's Sword'. Which is harder to find than most of the sword in the book.

There is also
'Pictorial history of swords and bayonets including dirks and daggers' by R. J. Wilkinson-Latham.

Don't have them but I have seen them in the library.

cheers

[leigh kitchen]

Any idea what the spinning top looking part of the gilding represents? I can't work it out.

[Gary Jucha]

Might be ..

Might be an idea to try and work out what the original "colour scheme" what was on the blade ...
....It looks to me as if it was a black or very dark background with gold decoration ...
In whatever case, this piece would have been purely for decoration ...

also the handle being loose to the crossguard could be down to age shrinkage and the possible loss of a leather damper/washer ? ...

Gary J.