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Originally Posted by SwordsAntiqueWeapons
Syrian silver work on swords seems to be one of the harder ones to pin down with accuracy...it seems that most was lost/sold off during the French Syrian wars of the early 1900s...I guess to support the war...This removal/replacement can be seen within the postcards with metal replacing the larger silver throat and chape whilst a lot of the time the silver suspension was retained so as to not have to replace the leather work.
From what I understand with information from learned French Ottoman collectors, in most ways the silver work resembled that of Ottoman swords with subtle design difference within the silver...and to these more learned collectors, the Algerian Shamshir with provenance that I recently passed on was an eye opener too...the specific silver designs on it were most interesting and apparently unrecorded or previously noted. That particular scabbard clearly showing palm trees and what appears to be a large building...more study needed but time poor like most in today's world...
So it would be nice to see if Syrian engraving and designs can be captured and supported on swords.
Gavin
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Thats pretty much what I am considering to add to my saif research. From what I managed to gather, Syrian saifs are not necessarily different from Ottoman examples when it comes to decoration. This makes the study very difficult to pinpoint and add to that, some Syrian saifs carry Ottoman stamps.
With Syria being a complete mess, its hard to gather local information and there is always the issue with nationalism where everything is claimed to be Syrian, by contemporary Syrian craftsmen.