Any help with these koummyas?
 

I've got these two Koummyas several years ago and would like to know their age and origin.
Regards
corrado26

The only thing i can tell you is that these two look very nice. The blades are well executed.
Age and origin i don't know. The only thing i know is that they come from Morocco.

Let's hope some more knowledgeable members will give a comment.

Those are exceptionally nice pieces, I would guess especially made for presentation to Dignitaries!

I WOULD AGREE MOROCCO 20TH CENTURY BETTER QUALITY RECENT DAGGERS THAN MOST I SAW FOR SALE THERE. IF SOLID SILVER VERY GOOD QUALITY IF SILVER PLATED GOOD BUT NOT FIRST CLASS. NICE EXAMPLES, VERY PLEASING TO THE EYE WITH GOOD BLADES NOT JUST COMMON TOURIST STUFF. :cool:

Ok I can tell you a lot about this koummiya because I have one similar and I did some researches about it. There are from the first part of the 20th c.
around 1900-1930.
Some have good and fonctionnal blades, like yours.
Some like mine have shitty blades, not even sharpened, but with a nice stamp on it. The second type is clearly for parade and are not functionnal.
They could be old tourist pieces, but I think there were just ornaments for locals.
They did some "tourist pistols" or "fantasia pistols" with the same camel bones...
Regards,
Kubur

Thank you all for your informative help - I love these nice pieces because of their uncommon design which set them off from the every day Koummyas. Two other koummyas from my collection have a grip that - as I'm been told -should be desert amber. The third one is inlaid with henna coloured bone.
corrado26

Very nice
As far I know there is no amber in the desert.
Look at the thread on the jambiya with bakelite grip.
The bakelite is a kind of old plastic...

THESE LAST TWO DAGGERS ARE LIKE THE MAJORITY OF THE DAGGERS MANY SHOPS IN MOROCCO WERE FULL OF. THEY ARE FLASHY BUT NOT AS OLD OR AS GOOD WORKMANSHIP AS THE FIRST TWO. THE AMBER WILL BE REAL LOW GRADE AMBER MELTED AND REFORMED AT BEST, BUT MORE LIKELY SOME MORE MODERN SORT OF POLYMER RESIN. THEY DO MAKE A GOOD DISPLAY AND THE SOUKS IN MOROCCO WERE QUITE ATTRACTIVE WITH LOTS OF THESE AND MANY NICE RUGS MAKING UP THE WALLS AND FILLING THE SHELVES AND DISPLAY CASES. :)

Am I correct that these are also made of camel bone?

Amber koummyas
 

The blade style shown often has an odd metal grain and I believe they were all associated with presentation pieces. This one was jeweler tested for an extended time and found not only to be resin, but of the real ancient Amber.
The second photoed Amber koummya sold at auction in Italy last year for 5K.
So look at them carefully. the katar slipped in ignore it. A home test
is with nail polish remover Acetone a drop in a hidden spot should have no effect, if touched no finger prints will remain. Steve

koummyas
 

I especially like #2 with the white bone grip. Is that walrus ivory or something else? When it ages it has a very spectacular appearance to my eye! And yes, the blades are something really special given the ordinary workmanship that is usually seen. Congrats on these two beautiful knives.


:D

- Dave A.

No, I think it's either camel or goat bone. The one with the fat red grip I showed above is certainly made from henna coloured camel bone with silver application.

@ Kubur: Don't forget that the Sahara has not been always a desert, millions of years ago it was an ocean!!
corrado26

Really? But where are the fish now?
:rolleyes:

All the koummyas in the attached foto come from the collection of the former and world famous tennis champion Baron Gottfried von Cramm, born 1909, who has been living in the castle Wispenstein near Alfeld. Von Cramm founded in 1951 a transport firm dealing with cotton in Egypt and became in the same year the fifth husband of at that time richest women of the world, Barbara Hutton. So he had spent a lot of time in Egypt, where he died in 1974. I think that all my Koummyas that I have shown here have been bought during that time in Egypt.
corrado26