Old European Bayonet sidearm hirschfanger

[asomotif]

This bayonet just sold via a local website (not to me, too late and too expensive)
The seller is/was no expert either and did not come much further than "a bayonet". But it appears to be a rather old example.

Any info available here among the forumites ?

Best regards,
Willem

[thinreadline]

This looks like a late 18th Century German bayonet , probably a hunting bayonet. A similar one is shown in Watts & White as No 225 / 226 and several allied types are featured in the unidentified section. The blade with stag is virtually idententical and the locking slot is typically Germanic. What concerns me is the style of the hilt . although it conforms generally to the type , it seems to me to me too simplistic and inelegant when compared to known authentic examples . It may be that the blade is genuine from a hunting hanger or even an original bayonet , but that the hilt is later .. many hilts of this type purporting to be 'Vivian ' carbine hilts were made in India in the early 1970s . The market for unusual early sword bayonets is so strong that fakes and composites abound .