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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
I think these very rugged and simple type weapons, with all the inherent flaws and crude demeanor are unique in the kind of mysterious charm they hold. The 'tribal' classification I believe may be well applied and quite possibly denoting Bedouin types of sabre from regions in Sinai and Negev. It seems we have had numbers of these rugged variations over the years which have fallen collectively into this category. Lofty would probably best confirm this and perhaps any particular tribal connections if applicable.
The horn grip roughly approximating the well known 'nimcha' style seems clearly just that rather than a dismantled hilt from one. The blade indeed does seem to be of European style in the fashion of blades found on many in various Yemeni swords. I am inclined to agree that this is probably native forged and dramatically repofiled, the dentated arcs are meant to simulate the 'sickle marks' but obviously not properly formed or placed.
The images posted by Stu are great, and well display some of the key variations of swords known to appear in Yemeni context .
1. One of the swords with the hilt once widely held to be of Zanzibar, but as shown has proven to be of a type with variant ring loop on the guard, and often found in Yemen, and while some associations may involve Zanzibar it is not a localized form from there.
2. This one is great! and from 2009 (TVV), these blades were usually straight (this one apparently altered) and of a form known from Solingen exporter F. W. Holler....in this case the ricasso block marked with MK enclosed in Seal of Solomon, adopted in Ethiopia c. 1874. The MK is believed to M Kevorkoff & Co. Harrar (Ethiopia) one of the number of Armenian merchants importing arms for Emperor Menelik II in the 1890s .
The lozenges on the hilt motif is unclear, but these diamond shapes popular on many Sudanese hilts around turn of century, usually in linear configuration.
3 . This seems to resemble one of the unusually modern looking espada ancha type swords with an older cavalry blade. Uncertain on attribution.
4. Indeed a Yemeni sword, the karabela style hilt (often termed 'hawks head' in Arabian parlance), is well known there and usually had shorter sabre blades, with the neck of the grip wire wrapped. The blade is of European form usually seen in the Red Sea sphere and found on kaskara. In this case, the rounded tip suggests it may have at some point been in the Omani sphere and perhaps either intended for or actually in one of the sa'if often referred to as 'kattara'.
The markings are intended to represent European, probably the celestial grouping of Schimmelbusch & Kirshbaum of Solingen who were suppliers of blades c. 1802-91. The European groupings usually have a single moon and six stars or at times a comet with stars.
This combination has been known around in these regions for some time and the sequence and configurations seem to have wide variation.
In any case, this particular sword as noted does seem to have Arab inclination but it would be hard to say whether to the Bedouin attribution or more broadly other use in Yemeni context as with other examples shown.
The Spanish colonial connection is more tenuous, but certainly viable as the features of these 'nimcha' style hilts was quite present in many of their innovations and this simple context sword may well have been intended for machete type use in the tropical climes of their colonies in Central America and Caribbean.
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Hi Jim and thanks for the concise reply.
You are right about #2 in as much as it was originally discussed by, and was originally owned by Teodor. At the time we discussed at length re the blade being reshaped. If I remember correctly, agreement was reached that it has always been curved, as the decoration along the trough of twin fullers is NOT stretched or distorted in one fuller as it would be if the blade had been later curved. Decoration in BOTH fullers match exactly. I have not got on file a full length pic of the decoration but have attached one showing the beginning of the decoration at the hilt end. You can see that it is quite definite here, as it is along the whole blade, so any distortion would be clear to see. Also a pic attached showing the Lion of Judea mark which is common on (particularly) Ethiopian blades.
It must be remembered here that Wilkinson exported MANY bare blades to the Middle East, as did various Solingen makers, and these were locally mounted.
Stu