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Dagger: O.131-1879

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 31 (Armoury)

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

The steel blade is double edged and double curved, with four narrow and two wider fullers forming a chevron along most of its length. At the forte is a slight ricasso, with a small riveted langet at the centre. The hilt is also of steel, with a beaked pommel carved as a stylised parrot’s head with eyes and a detailed beak, a plain tubular grip, slightly curved, and a stepped section at the blade with crenelations and a roped band. The blade is polished bright with areas of patination from its earlier corrosion, the hilt in untouched patinated condition, showing that it was originally decorated with floral ornament in silver koftgari

Notes

History note: From Ganjam

Legal notes

Given by Robert Taylor, MA

Measurements and weight

Blade Length: 25.5 cm
Overall Length: 35.5 cm
Weight: 304 g

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1879) by Taylor, Robert, MA

Dating

17th Century#
Circa 1600 CE - 1700 CE

Note

Compare O.144-1879 from this collection and comments about the type there.

The pommel, the end of the hilt, of this dagger is, unusually, a parrot – the beak is very prominent. The hilt is decorated with inlaid silver, called koftgari, in which silver wire is hammered onto the surface.

Components of the work

Blade composed of steel

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: 131
  • Method of creation: Inscribed
  • Type: Tag

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: O.131-1879
Primary reference Number: 159899
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 12 May 2021 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Dagger" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/159899 Accessed: 2024-12-27 19:27:21

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/159899 |title=Dagger |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-27 19:27:21|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-159899

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