Interesting Dagger

[mgolab]

Happy New Year All:

I received this dagger as my Christmas gift. It is 16.5 inches overall, with a 10.5 inch blade. Also, the blade is 1.25 inches wide.

It has a nice weight to it, probably 1.5 pounds. Hilt is brass ribbed and what appears to be a "GR" cypher on the pommel.

Could this be a cut down British bandsman sword, pre-pattern? My gut tells me that the age is around early 19th century.

Thanks for any comments.

[mgolab]

Perhaps the cypher is a "GN"

I found this information:

The "GN" royal cypher for Naples most likely refers to the Kingdom of Naples under Joachim Murat (as King of Naples from 1808-1815), where "G" stood for Gioacchino (Joachim) and "N" for Napoli, appearing on military insignia like the 1st Regiment "Re" and "Regina" units, representing the Napoleonic era's influence and the Bourbon dynasty's later rule. It's a monogram combining the ruler's initial with the kingdom's name, common in royal insignia, especially when Naples was a Napoleonic client state

[Jim McDougall]

I think thats a pretty good call, and thanks for updating the additional research Mark! While I can see where the band sword idea comes in with these quillon terminals, I think that deduction on the GN is most plausible.

The complexity of these theaters of the Napoleonic campaigns is pretty daunting, but I think this might well fall into the category you suggest. Possibly the best support would be these large daggers , daga da cacciatore (=hunting dagger) and found some reasonably similar but more austere versions from mid 19th c. ("Armi Bianche Militari Italaliene", C. Calamandrei, 1987, p.344. )
During these complex times it seems reasonable that special units charged with provisioning would be part of forces in place, and hunting arms were possibly decorated in the manner of the often flamboyant regalia well known with uniforms of these times.