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Originally Posted by ArmsAndAntiques
From my limited knowledge this may be quite a rare and early dirk.
There are many forgeries but the age displayed on this example doesn't track with known style of forgery work, and even as a Victorian piece it doesn't display the feel of a Victorian attempt at an early dirk.
The date is chiseled in a manner typical and contemporary with known dated Scottish pistols, not in and of itself a mark of an original since that can be replicated. The grip appears to be boxwood or a similar type, a bit harder to copy in the 19th C. The iron fittings display the right type of age one would expect to see on a piece of 17th c. dating, more difficult to copy in the 19th C.. The blade has been cleaned at some point and displays a lack of cleaning, or rather lesser evidence cleaning towards the base, indicating that it was cleaned while the blade was attached to the grip, one of the biggest marks in my book for older work taken in the context of other points. The Celtic knotwork is of fine quality and the tooling in the leather should be examined in the context of pre-Jacobite Scottish leather work.
This is all based on photos, but if I had this I would trend more confident in 17th C. origin than not.
Kudos on a beauty!
LL
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Well thank you for spending the time to outline these points to me , this is all very interesting and to think it has spent years languishing within a heap of ethnic daggers in the loft ! This really does seem to bear further investigation .