Hi Valjhun,
I missed this, what a beauty! It is not at all surprising that something this unique could be traced to Artzi....he is truly the connoissuer of unusual and fascinating items.
I am curious what sort of attribution he placed on this when you acquired it, as I would expect his comments would be most pertinant.
I would presume the present mounts to be 18th century, and the blade, as you have noted would certainly be a great topic for debate. While in some regards the blade does have a degree of the look of the earlier blades ( I am not sure I would go as far as 15th century), the magificent chiseled motif on the back of the blade seems later.
I am not sure if you might have noticed the thread on the pandours, but I would submit that this might well be a piece that could be attributed to a unit of this or Frei Korps, irregular units of armed forces attached to various military throughout the 18th century. This blade profile seems very much like some of the yataghans and yataghan bladed weapons used by them.
The unusual motif in the application on the hilt seems perhaps inclined toward these types of weapon also, at least in my perspective at this point.
Best regards,
Jim
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