Fish Skin Grips on British Swords?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Ian

leather from other animals (onager...) Probably from French, chagrin, leather from a horse's croup; from Turkish cagri, rump; and perhaps akin to Mongolian sa'ggru, to sit. Ian


https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shagreen

It's worth mentioning, to elaborate on my comment above re donkey skin as used on Persian and Ottoman scabbards, that there there is yet another hide from a related equine species with a decidedly different appearance.

This is the skin of the Inner Asian onager, a wild ass of the steppes, as opposed to the domestic donkey. It was commonly used on the grips and scabbard facings of Tibetan knives and swords. The material can be readily distinguished in appearance and texture from the donkey skin on, say, a Persian shamshir scabbard in that it is somewhat thicker, a chestnut brown in color (phasing to black with extensive handling, but retaining a dull appearance with no luster), and most importantly, having a wrinkled texture as opposed to a pimply, "chicken skin" effect.

I have recently been advised by a contact in the UK that this onager skin has recently been added to the CITES list because of the animals' status in the wild, if so it's yet another restriction on those of us in the trade.

Besides on edged weapons, this type of skin is sometimes encountered on other ethnographic objects from the Himalayan and Mongolian regions.