Maker: Unknown
The blade is single edged, with an almost straight edge, the back curving forwards towards the point. The back is flat and thick, and there is a broad, deep fuller at the back. The whole blade from the fuller backwards is covered in heavy silver foil chased with floral scrolls and geometrical ornament of a pearled ground. The hilt is of dark horn, finely carved with sections of foliage, secured by three brass rivets with three from an original four decorative silver washers. At the junction with the blade the hilt is covered with a heavy silver ferrule, chiselled into a complex spray of waves at the edge side. The pommel cap is of silver chased with flowers. The tang extends the full width of the hilt, and is covered at front and rear with bands of tooled silver. The scabbard is of wood covered with fluted silver sheet, decorated with bands of silver filigree.
History note: Uncertain
Given by Miss C. Harwood
Length: 340 mm
Weight: 392 g
Method of acquisition: Given (1854-05-05) by Harwood, Miss G.
1700 CE - 1799 CE
This is a very fine example of the characteristic dagger of Sri Lanka. Both the decoration of the blade and hilt as well as the scabbard are of silver. The hilt is probably made from black coral or dark horn.
Scabbard
composed of
wood
Hilt
composed of
horn
Rivets
composed of
brass (alloy)
Blade
Length 215 mm
Silver Foil, Cap
Inscription present: statement of provenance
Inscription present: old accession number
Accession number: O.1 & A-1854
Primary reference Number: 162287
Accession number: ARM 1-1854
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Dagger" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/162287 Accessed: 2024-12-22 15:24:26
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/162287
|title=Dagger
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 15:24:26|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-162287
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