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Old 23rd August 2021, 12:13 AM   #1
Saracen
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Originally Posted by vasilisnik View Post
I agree with you that there are similarities.
The scabbard locket, the suspension ring and the spherical scabbard ending are similar.
There are major diferences too.
The scabbard shape is different and there is no use on niello.
Furthermore the pattern of the scabbard ending looks very turkish to me.
I think there are much more similarities than differences and these similarities give more certainty in the tradition of production than differences. In addition, the shape of the scabbard is determined by the shape of the blade, this may explain the differences in the shape of the scabbard of your bichaq from the traditional form of the Boka Kotorska scabbard.
There is some eclecticism in the design of the scabbard, but I find it difficult to determine the pattern at the ending of the scabbard. Turkish I see only the composition of the ornament on the side where this pattern is. But such a composition seems to me to be common and characteristic of Ottoman objects from different regions.
The curly ornament on this side looks typically Greek for me, the same ornamental motif is also on the handle of your bichaq, it can also be found on the scabbard from Boka Kotorska. The Anatolian version of this ornament is more abstract and more saturated, as in the example below.
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Old 23rd August 2021, 12:17 AM   #2
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The opposite side of the scabbard is also decorated in the Greek tradition: repeating sectors with plant elements. As on the scabbard of the yataghan from Ioannina shown in Robert Elgood book "The Arms of Greece..." on page 140. And on the bichaq scabbard in the photo below. In general, I still think that you have a very interesting bichaq originally from the Western Balkans. I only doubt that its handle is made of mother-of-pearl. Can it be a specially treated horn?
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Old 23rd August 2021, 06:30 AM   #3
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I only doubt that its handle is made of mother-of-pearl. Can it be a specially treated horn?
The hilt is brittle, as seen by the crack; mother of pearl is notorious for this sort of fragility. I don't think you could achieve the iridescent luster of the surface on horn.
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Old 23rd August 2021, 08:56 PM   #4
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The scales on the handle seem to me too large to be mother of pearl.
I do not know a clam whose shell has such a thick layer of mother of pearl.
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