a sail guard left hand dagger

[ulfberth]

Originally Posted by fernando

Ah ... now we have to distinct provenances; and may i guess the blade might have been shortened from a sword (rapier?) one, both due to its unusual (?) tapering and mainly due to the advanced position of the makers mark .
A mark that doesn't appear to be Spanish; none of the Toledo smith marks in the Palomar chart seem to have such symbol and those are usually puntched inside an estucheon. Didn't find it in Wallace Collection book, either. Maybe Italian ?

Hi Fernando,

as you, Jim also suggested this and the dagger certainly looks Italian.
The hilt reminds of the style of the Italian crab claw hilts as does the sail guard.
Furthermore, this dagger was found in untouched condition together with a similar dagger which is almost certainly Italian, it bears a + mark on its ricasso which I found in the book "waffen des abendlandes" on page 40 its described as Italian 16th C collection Dal Pozzo Mailand.
Note that the rings on the grip are the same style to.
I hope Casey is able to post some pictures of this example to.

kind regards

Ulfberth