Dom,
I am not sure this dagger was ever meant to have a dolphin (seamonster) shaped chape. There have been various discussions about the links between the Balkans and the Maghreb. Elgood's latest book mentiones that some of the manufacturing centers in the Western Balkans had production, specially aimed at export to Tunisia and Algeria. When one considers that much of the local elite in Tunisia and Algeria at the time was descendant from Ottoman janissaries, its taste for elaborately decorated hilts and scabbards in the Balkan style is not surprising.
What I personally see here is a local attempt at imitating a Balkan bichaq - the craftsman who produced the scabbard and the hilt for your dagger did his best interpretation. Casting a dolphin chape may have been out of his ability, and adding one now, over a century later, will only ruin the authenticity of what is an interesting and very nice Northern African dagger.
Regards,
Teodor
|