Help with this dagger
 

Hi, first of all sorry for my lack of experience. I'm just learning about this great topic and definitely in my first steps.
Congratulations for this amazing forum that has been very useful to me in order to understand better about daggers.
I'm just starting my collection and the following dagger was offered to me, but I have many doubts about its quality, age, origin.

I'd appreciate a lot your comments and sorry because the quality of the pictures is quite bad (didn't get better ones).

Thanks in advance.
Francisco

Francisco, I have edited your post to conform with forum policy. Please read and acquaint yourself better with the forum rules before posting again.

Best,
Robert

It is definately a tourist item meant as a letter opener, but it is hard to tell the age. Most were made in the last ten years, and if ivory, out of extremely unethical poached material. There is a chance that it is Republican (1911-1950s), but it is very difficult to tell. Generally I would avaid such things.

The carvings are mid level quality, and better than most recent examples.
Josh

Also, there is a good chance the whole thing is plastic.

My mom had bought one such an item once, they are made out of bone mainly, with some mostlikely poached ivory. My guess is probably Chinese touristy export the same as the Indian Moghul looking fake, dull Damascus knives and other items.

Welcome Francisco:

As others have said this item is purely "decorative" and of recent manufacture. Much of it could be made from plastic, as noted by Josh, although the "blade" may be bone or possibly ivory as it seems to be a different color from the rest of the ensemble.

When starting out collecting, I think it is important to have a plan and perhaps to focus on one or two fairly clear goals. It is easy to get addicted to buying sharp and pointy things:) and end up owning a lot of diverse items with no particular theme. Focusing on a discrete geographical area or a particular group of people helps build expertise in that field, and we become more comfortable and confident in our decisions. That said, even the very experienced sometimes make mistakes.

We all learn by our mistakes, and we all probably have items that we wished we did not pay so much for (although we may be reluctant to admit that ;)). Sometimes it is worth taking a calculated risk in the hope that a low priced item is something special, and sometimes we really luck out (but that is not usually the case :().

So, welcome again to this fascinating field of ours and I hope you will continue to contribute for many years to come.

Ian.

First of all, thanks a lot to everyone for your comments and apologize to Robert if something was uncorrect on my posting.
I assumed that was not a very interesting piece but wanted to ask and learn than just follow my instincts.
I have a small collection and I'm afraid Ian your advise was a bit late and have a mixture of areas!!
Most of the daggers were a present from my grandfather-in-law and of course some might be interesting and some others clearly are totally touristic.
Reading on this forum I'm being able to recognize big part of them, so thanks a lot. Still some unclear, but keep reading.
Again, thanks to all.
Francisco

very well said Ian :-)

Jens