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Originally Posted by Dmitry
My pesetas say that this is not a British blade [although it could be. I've never seen one decorated with this script], but either Spanish, German, or Portuguese, for that matter. British swords in Portugal were from the early 1800s, by which time the montmorency style was gone from fashion with the British.
Judging by the shorter size of this yataghan, a maritime provenance would not be out of question. Hypothetically - a Portuguese merchantman or a naval vessel captured by the Mediterranean pirates, blade cut down and rehilted. Pure speculation on my part. Blade could come from a variety of sources, and never seen a drop of sea water. My €.02.
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Excellent thoughts, and actually what I meant to note was the fashion of the time favoring the montmorency section, with British blades case in point. I have a Wooley & Deakin with this section which dates around 1803. Wooley of course used the style as early as his M1788 light cavalry sabres. With the advent of the M1796 styles and onward, the hollow ground blade section prevailed over the montmorency.
From what I can see of this blade, it does seem altered or reprofiled, and clearly though using a yataghan eared type hilt from the Balkans, is obviously not a 'yataghan'. The heavy blade seems to almost have somewhat the profile of a Khyber knife, and sends thought toward those regions in India in the north, where the Portuguese blades (firangi) often found reuse. While not actually profound earlier, the Ottoman influences still entered via trade in the ports that served the regions of the north. Could an Ottoman yataghan hilt have been mounted on a reprofiled Portuguese blade?