Maker: Unknown
The steel blade is single-edged, flat at the back with a dip towards the point and widening slightly to the point. It is decorated at the back with a series of punched crescents and an incised line. It has a short ricasso and a small, facetted block decorated at the back with Xs in double incised lines, and inlaid silver stripes on the broad tang, visible above and below the grip for half its length. The hilt has a pistol grip of silver alloy, attached with three silver rivets along the grip and another, with large ornate washers, at the pommel. The tang button has a similar but smaller washer. The scabbard is of wood, with silver alloy throat and chape, and copper alloy bands down front and rear joints and round the middle. At the end is an onion-shaped finial filed into lobes. There are applied bands punched with rows of fine dots, at the top of the chape and three on the throat. At the top front of the throat is a silver hook, and at the outside centre is a polyhedral knop with a short section of heavy twisted silver chain, joined by a silver bell with pendant corals on silver chains, to two longer sections of finer chain with a half moon at the end with a set of five implements (tweezers, a spike, an iron file and two spatulate ear-wax removers). The blade is deeply pitted at the point, the copper alloy bands on the scabbard oxidising
Given by Robert Taylor, MA
Blade Length: 18.2 cm
Overall Length: 29.8 cm
Weight: 346 g
Method of acquisition: Given (1879) by Taylor, Robert, MA
19th Century
Circa
1800
CE
-
1879
CE
Compare Royal Armouries XXVID.46 and even closer, XXVID.???, as well as O.202-1879 from this collection, which could be from the same workshop.
This is the typical knife of the Coorg people of the south-west coast of India. The name comes from Tamil and means ‘hand knife’. It was always carried in the front of the belt that carries a ayda katti and was more normally used as a pocket knife. The little group of tools are toiletry utensils - tweezers, a spike, file, and two ear wax removers.
Blade composed of steel
Accession number: O.160-1879
Primary reference Number: 159939
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Knife" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/159939 Accessed: 2024-04-28 19:26:15
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/159939
|title=Knife
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-28 19:26:15|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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