silver mounted file knife

ariel · 12th September 2019, 11:22 PM

Reliance on Egerton’s book is overrated.
Let’s not forget that he was tasked to write a catalog of collection he himself did not assemble. He had to rely on notes from multiple British military and civilian personnel serving for the East India Company. Likely, many of those were not collected by them, but were “second hand” objects with very uncertain provenance.
The same plate showing this knife and titled as weapons of Nepal, contains image of an Ottoman yataghan. How did it get there we can no longer know.

On the other hand, in the catalogue of his own collection Egerton is meticulously clear as to the provenance and the date / place of acquisition of weapons bought personally by him.

12th September 2019, 11:22 PM	#30
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Reliance on Egerton’s book is overrated. Let’s not forget that he was tasked to write a catalog of collection he himself did not assemble. He had to rely on notes from multiple British military and civilian personnel serving for the East India Company. Likely, many of those were not collected by them, but were “second hand” objects with very uncertain provenance. The same plate showing this knife and titled as weapons of Nepal, contains image of an Ottoman yataghan. How did it get there we can no longer know. On the other hand, in the catalogue of his own collection Egerton is meticulously clear as to the provenance and the date / place of acquisition of weapons bought personally by him.