Flamboyant dog head hilted dagger Identity sought

[SidJ]

I seek info on this dagger please. Hilt looks like a hunting hound. Blade is very robust and of diamond cross section and is laminated. The whole thing is steel. Any thoughts on origin and age greatly appreciated as I have had no luck figuring this out. Thanks.

[Jim McDougall]

Here we focus on historic weapons for discussion, but with the potential character of this dagger seemingly quite modern, perhaps early 20th c. and possibly relegated to 'fantasy' type items or at best theatrical or fraternal, it may be that readers might hesitate in commenting.

Still, this does seem a soundly made dagger, and I thought it worthwhile to add some historic detail to 'dogs head' edged weapons which might have inspired this example.

It seems that the 'dogs head' type pommels, naturally among the various types of zoomorphic pommels, are among the less seen versions. Typically the 'lions head' is most ubiquitous with many on British swords, however this feature is quite common in European sword hilts, notably German and Dutch as well.

During and after the American Revolution, the apocryphal notion arose that some 'American' (colonists) swords had 'dogs head' hilts on hangers which were supposedly a parody on British 'lion head' swords. Actually, the British had long used 'dog heads' on regulation hangers since 1690s, but these were actually the exotic lion (Sinha) types from Sri Lankan kastane. There may have been hunting weapons using the dogs head, but typically 'hounds heads' were seem only on the quillon terminals of such swords.

In "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution" (George Neumann, 1973, o.101, 119.S), "...many of the animal headed pommels especially American, are so crude that identification is resolved by calling them "dogs heads".
This seems to refer to these types of 1690s+ with the Sinhalese lion heads, referred to as 'monster' heads but sometimes dogs heads.

Here I would go to British heraldry, and the use of the much favored and stalwart hunting dogs termed 'Talbot' hounds since medieval times. The strong symbolism of these dogs lent well to use of the dog symbolically, and as charges in various arms.

This is likely the symbolic character used in this dagger, but in what terms it would be very hard to determine without knowing more on provenance.

With the undulating blade, this is completely atypical for hunting daggers, and unusual for most edged weapons outside the well known edged weapons of Indonesia and Philippines. Here, the only suggestion that may seem viable would be the references in Biblical and Kabbalistic material to the 'flaming sword'. These kinds of blades occurred notably in chivalric works and lore as the 'flammard' (not flamberge as commonly thought) with knightly swords having such blades. These occur also in Islamic swords of course.

It would be possible this could be a hunting dagger, but with the wavy blade it seems unlikely. Then it might be in the sense that the 'hunt' was a most fashionable event, and the edged weapons worn were as much, if not more, objects of status and impression. With the gentry, awareness of a 'talbot' hound with a chivalric 'flaming blade' would be impressive perhaps.

Just thoughts offering optimistic possibilities, and some historic connections which might lend to such possibility without giving in to the less attractive notions of theatrical use etc.