A hunting knife for ID & comments
 

What do you guys think about this one ?
I will antecipate what the seller said, but am ready for your disagreements:
A hunting/defence knife, from Sicily, mid-end 18th century.
The one edged blade measures 26 cms. in length, 40 m/m in width and 7 m/m in thickness. Therefore a sturdy think; you may call it a weapon. Total length 38 cms.. The grip is made of slices of horn, i ignore from what animal.The wire filets, pommel and ferrule look like silver; for what i paid for this piece, they might as well be gold. The relief of the two guys on the ricasso are as deep as you can see. I am not sure what these two zoomorphic figure are; one looks like game, the other confuses me a bit ... a dog ?
I will anxiously wait for your diagnosis .

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Italian, later 18th century probobly, early 19th century at the latest. Very nice catch Nando!
Much better than most I see.

For some reason best known to my computer I'm having trouble viewing entire posts at once today! I see the rest now! :shrug:
If you indeed paid a 'gold' price for this dagger, then don't worry they are usually expensive and seldom this nice.
BTW, I think it's a lion and a stag.

Edit: Here's another described as 'Italian late 18thC'

Hi Fernando,
First instinct would make me say Hunting knife. The figures certainly suggest to me a dog with the other being quarry with swept back horns/antlers, Ibex? or might be stylized deer. Ibex hunting still popular on the Iberian peninsula and the dagger style again in keeping with Southern Europe. Doesn't look like a fighting knife more a rich mans hunting dagger. Nice piece :cool: :)
My Regards,
Norman.

Thank you for your input, guys.
I have just located a similar example, although not so refined and; a shallower relief and some blade wear. The origin and approx. date matches. I will try and chase the (Italian) owner, to check if he got further info since he posted his knife, back in 2006.

P.S.
Gene's posted example has a similar ricasso decoration style but the blade and grip are more dagger like, i would say.


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I have emailed the guy and he was kind enough to answer promptly.
Nothing significant to add to the subject :shrug:

Hi Fernando,

similar daggers are listed in the Baumann Collection catalog (Katalog zur Waffensammlung der Stiftung Baumann) on p.651/652 - labeled as Italian, 18th century.

If you don't have this book, just let me know and I can scan the relevant pages.

Greetings,
Matus

Please do, Matus.
Thank you so much in advance :)

Hi Fernando,

here are the promised pages.

Cheers,
Matus

Very nice examples, Matus,
Thank you so much for that.