Baskethilt Dagger for ID and discussion

Triarii · 25th June 2025, 03:51 PM

The late C16th in England / Scotland saw the evolution of basket hilted or 'ale house daggers'. There are way more descriptions than survivors. There was one in York Museum (UK).

John Smythe mentions them in 1590 - 'great brauling Alehouse hilts', as do others, and they seem to be the same as 'bum daggers' (which are noted as having iron hilts), due to being worn across the waist/backside and are probably the same thing as 'close hilted' daggers. Close-hilted being used to describe basket hilted swords. Some accounts desribe the daggers as weighting 2-3lbs and the hilts as being handy to flatten peoples noses, so they were beefy things. Di Grassi has a print showing one in use versus a sword.

Whether this is one from that era I don't know, but it's a line of enquiry. The blade type with the distinct spine looks right. There were some mid C16th English royal proclamations limiting blades on daggers to 12" (which was probably ignored as much as the proscriptions on rapier blade length were), so 13" is in the right ballpark.

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25th June 2025, 03:51 PM	#3
Triarii Member Join Date: Oct 2021 Location: Bristol Posts: 129	The late C16th in England / Scotland saw the evolution of basket hilted or 'ale house daggers'. There are way more descriptions than survivors. There was one in York Museum (UK). John Smythe mentions them in 1590 - 'great brauling Alehouse hilts', as do others, and they seem to be the same as 'bum daggers' (which are noted as having iron hilts), due to being worn across the waist/backside and are probably the same thing as 'close hilted' daggers. Close-hilted being used to describe basket hilted swords. Some accounts desribe the daggers as weighting 2-3lbs and the hilts as being handy to flatten peoples noses, so they were beefy things. Di Grassi has a print showing one in use versus a sword. Whether this is one from that era I don't know, but it's a line of enquiry. The blade type with the distinct spine looks right. There were some mid C16th English royal proclamations limiting blades on daggers to 12" (which was probably ignored as much as the proscriptions on rapier blade length were), so 13" is in the right ballpark.