Damascus bladed shashka

[erlikhan]

I know its not so healthy without picture but unfortunately not any available at the moment. I wonder, and request you to help on the international market price estimations for a shashka, long, leather scabbard with typical silver nielloed mountings, hilt completely covered with typical niello silver, and blade, rustless very good damascus steel with 2-3 cms gold koftgari on one side, and around 15cms long gold koftgari on the other side. You can write your estimations here, no problem for me but if forum rules prevent, I request you to write amounts in private message. (Anybody, dont waste time searching for it, it is not on ebay or any internet site) ;)
regards

[Andrew]

Erlikhan, the rules prohibit appraisals on the forum. If anyone would like to discuss that aspect further, please do so via email or PM.

Thanks,
Andrew

[ariel]

Duh??????
Without even seeing it?
You think you can get away with having this very interesting shashka and not showing it?
Come on, Erlikhan, make us happy! :D

[erlikhan]

:) ok. finally the pictures. damascus blade, both sides gold koftgari, one bigger and other small.. length 95 cm. and in addition to my first question, anybody suggests which tribe it belongs to?

http://www.pbase.com/erlik1453/inbox

regards

[Andrew]

Erlikhan, that's a beautiful sword, thanks for sharing it!

It's difficult to discern from the photos: is the blade wootz or pattern-welded?

I'm struck by the beautiful fullering. It reminds me of the fullering often seen on Chinese dao. Also, do I see gold/brass dots inlaid into the blade? Is that common for a shashka?

Andrew

[erlikhan]

Andrew, it is wootz with a rather low contrast. the dots are just some kind of stain, perhaps beginning of rust?. they seem to remove easily without any pitting left behind
regards