Hello All,
I splurged a bit bought myself an early birthday present.
I think this can be called a Balkan belosapce handjar (or yataghan/yatagan/handyar/handschar, etc.). It's outside my normal area of collecting, but I've wanted one for decades, and I found one I could in my price range, so I pulled the trigger.
I think this is might be from the mid-19th century, but that's a bit of a guess based on the carved decoration looking similar to these three in the Croatian History Museum catalogue:
http://jatagani.hismus.hr/webe/hld/Listici/b000101h.htm
http://jatagani.hismus.hr/webe/hld/Listici/b000209h.htm
http://jatagani.hismus.hr/webe/hld/Listici/b000116h.htm
I'd love to see a translation of the inscription and hear anything and everything people have to say on this.
Have fun,
Leif