This wide-bladed dagger is unmarked and undated, but certainly German or Austrian. It incorporates design elements of the heavy, wide knives and cleavers found in 17^th century hunting trousses with elements of the 18^th century hunting sword. It measures about 12 inches overall, with a spearpoint blade about 7 ½ inches long with false edge. The hilt is iron mounted, with flat pommel cap and recurved S-shaped guard with narrow, flat and slightly flaring ends to the quillons. It also uses a downturned, round counterguard on the obverse with incised border line, and has an oval stop for the scabbard mouth in place under the quillon block. The grip is staghorn, nicely flaring toward the pommel for a surer grip and with a ferrule at the guard. It comes with its original, heavily worked brown leather sheath with sewn frog and belt loop.

The hunting trousse usually incorporated a short, heavy knife to dispatch and dismember game (along with smaller knives and sometimes a fork to dress, carve and even have it as meal in the field.) The 18^th century hunting sword occasionally incorporated these tools in its scabbard, frequently used a downturned counterguard worked on the exterior to resemble a clamshell, a similar oval stop for the scabbard mouth, and sometimes had recurved quillons terminating in an animals foot or hoof, of which the quillon ends on this knife seem an abstract version.

The iron mounts have an untouched, aged patina with a little freckling. The staghorn grip is excellent. The hilt is slightly loose, but is stable. The blade shows dark gray age spotting along the upper and lower edges on the obverse, and broader areas on the reverse, some roughness to the back edge, and some scratches from sharpening and polishing on the flats, indicating it was kept in use for some time. The brown leather scabbard is excellent. We have not attempted to date it precisely since style in hunting weapons can be very conservative, especially in Europe, where it was strictly an upper class activity and fashionable among the nobility quite late.  This would be a great addition to a collection of hunting weapons, though it is worth noting that hunting styles carried over into some military arms as well.  [sr] [ph:m]

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