Mystery Dagger

[nechesh]

Ian, i wasn't necessarily suggesting that this dagger was of masonic origin, however, with all due respect to your own personal experience with masonry, skull imagery has long been a part of mason ritual. Just one example would be the skull and cross bones on the ritual apron of the Knight of the Rose Croix. The apron of the Master Elect of Nine depicts a bloody severed head held by a hand and arm by the hair. Animal imagery abounds, from dragons and snakes to lambs and two-headed eagles. I also am not aware of any of this imagery being used, per se, on any of the masonic ritual daggers, but many magickal lodges took clues for their ritual structure from Free Masonry. These groups were not in any way satanic.

I must disagree with Jose. Satanic cults were in no way "in vogue" during the French Revolution. Satanic scares were. Catherine La Voisin's cult, where it all started, at the court of King Louis XIV was probably not all that large or as terrible as was made out. It has always been very easy for any one to cry "SATANISM!" at anything the slightest bit heretical. Just look at the history of the witch trials. Most of the so-called satanic cults were nothing of the sort. Even Aleister Crowley, the self appointed "Great Beast" of the 19th-20thC was much more a Christian at heart than he would ever dare let on. Of course, some people took his antics far too seriously in the 1960s and contemporary "satanism" was born.

Sorry for the digression. It all just to say that i still feel it is much more likely that this dagger was made for a member of a non-satanic magickal lodge. They actually tended to take there magickal work much more seriously and i believe would be more likely to have such a beautifully done piece of work commissioned. Of course, if the inscription reads "All hail satan" i will definitely concede i am wrong.

[Rather]

Definitely a German inscription, I can read:

Zur Erinnerung ??????? 1884
??? Lang

In remembrance of ????? 1884
??? Lang

Would need a clearer Photo to be able to read the rest of the words. So this dagger was a gift from a guy named Lang to remind of either an event or a person. This is regrettably illegible on the pictures.

[Conogre]

Here's another case of a common tag used as a catch all to identify a general type of weapon being taken in a context more personal than it was ever intended to be.
I, too, have seen pieces labled as "satanic ritual daggers", particularly of the type referred to in Levine's and tend to agree with Nechesh that they were probably more magical related than actual Satanism, but in that time period, almost anything that looked even slightly macabre was immediately tossed into that category, but that shouldn't be all that surprising as hard core fundamentalists still do that even today.........I CAN'T be the only one here old enough to remember rock'n'roll and D&D being labled demonic and/or satanistic as well, can I?
The knife looks to be extremely well executed, from an artistic point of view, compared to many/most that I've seen and the date wouldn't surprise me as to being original for a gift/presentation piece from that era as well.
Germany seems to have produced a preponderance of these from the late 1700's, and particularly from the 1850's through the 1940's which DOES make the category of FRENCH satanic knives a bit odd, but who am I to quibble?
Mike

[nechesh]

I would still love to get the inscription translated. Is there a way for you, Mark, to contact the owner and get the actual inscription. It might clear up a lot.

[Aurangzeb]

Hi nechesh!

I have been trying to contact him for several days now and to no luck.We can't seem to set a good time,Especially during the week.