Left hand dagger for comments

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Thank you guys for all your comments.
Yes Jim, your assessmentts on either provenance and ring are more than correct. I have read an article in that a modern study was made on the effectiveness of the use on these daggers parrying ring, before and after its inplementation; te result was largely explicit.
Good points on the parrying issue, Mark; still my question goes for the 'grooves' on the lower part of the ring... as if these were an aiming back sight (sorry the fantasy). However it would be a further long shot to consider those as a 'rail' for the opponents sword to slide in for the breaking move. May i assume, by the way, that i am not a keen follower of the blade breaker system/s, as an actual effective procedure .
Thank you for your compliments and the heads up on the mark clearing, Robert. I must say however that, what has to be rubbed, was already done by the seller's (zealous) cleaning of this piece; no brighter image may longer show up. I will stand glad to, at least, ensure that there is a mark on this blade ... whatever it is

Thank you Nando,
The curious parallel ridges at the bottom of this ring become more of a conundrum, as they seem quite deliberately placed, and outside the normal placement for aesthetic motif. There would seem to be some more pragmatic answer for their presence, but the oft suggested ideas of these or any of the left hand daggers as sword breakers has been regarded by most of the venerable writers as mostly edged weapons lore. The reference most readily at hand being Egerton.
It does seem like the ridges might have some sort of purpose though, and I begin to think of the somewhat mysterious gunner's (bombardiers) stilettos of these periods. Egerton notes that by the 17th century as these daggers in fencing began the end of their use, they had become of a 'reduced' type with blades approximating the stiletto and with a ring guard (p.246).

It would seem to me that the earlier versions of these must have had turks heads on the gripwork, while this has ferrules, more consistant with 17th c (and I would defer to Jasper for verification of that assumption).

It would be interesting to see if rings with these curious parallel 'slots' exist on other ring guards of these periods. Perhaps more context might lead toward plausible purposes for them .

All the best,
Jim