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Old 2nd May 2008, 07:54 PM   #3
Berkley
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Austin, Texas USA
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The Egerton reference is to figure 348, Plate IX, "Nepalese Arms" from "Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour" by Lord Egerton of Tatton (1896). Egerton describes it simply as "KNIFE; abruptly curved, grooved blade; silvered hilt. Nepal. L. 11 in." I have not found the Stone reference.
Several years ago John Powell had a somewhat similar knife which he believed to be Nepalese. If I recall correctly, he thought it was called a bank. Stone shows a bank which looks unlike either this knife or the shafras shown by Artzi, described as "A Mahratta knife with a sickle-shaped blade and straight handle.... The Wallace Catalogue describes other forms of knife under this name." I do not have access to the Wallace Catalogue, but would be interested to know what it says. As you say, this does not appear to be Arab silver work. The shape of the blade when vertical does look somewhat like a jambiya, and the arrangement of the ornaments on the handle is somewhat like I have seen on some jambiya hilts.
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