拍品 55
55
A RARE LOWLAND-SCOTS BALLOCK DAGGER with sharply tapering hollow ground blade of stiff diamond section etched on each face with a mark, 'O' between crescents, and with recessed ricasso, etched and gilt at the forte with panels of scrollwork (some wear and pitting) with, on one face of the ricasso the date '1614' above the initials 'RP', tapering polished root-boxwood (dudgeon) hilt of octagonal section (some bruising), swelling to a domed top and with characteristic lobes at the base, each with domed copper-gilt rivet, tang button en suite, in original tooled leather scabbard (tip missing) stamped with maker's mark 'CS' and with original single-edged by-knife, the base of the blade etched and gilt (gilding worn) en suite with the dagger, and inlaid in copper on one face with the same bladesmith's mark, the slender root-boxwood handle (incomplete) a lobeless version of that on the dagger, dated 1614

細節
A RARE LOWLAND-SCOTS BALLOCK DAGGER with sharply tapering hollow ground blade of stiff diamond section etched on each face with a mark, 'O' between crescents, and with recessed ricasso, etched and gilt at the forte with panels of scrollwork (some wear and pitting) with, on one face of the ricasso the date '1614' above the initials 'RP', tapering polished root-boxwood (dudgeon) hilt of octagonal section (some bruising), swelling to a domed top and with characteristic lobes at the base, each with domed copper-gilt rivet, tang button en suite, in original tooled leather scabbard (tip missing) stamped with maker's mark 'CS' and with original single-edged by-knife, the base of the blade etched and gilt (gilding worn) en suite with the dagger, and inlaid in copper on one face with the same bladesmith's mark, the slender root-boxwood handle (incomplete) a lobeless version of that on the dagger, dated 1614
14½in.

拍品專文

This belongs to the well-known group of daggers, many with inscribed blades, which appear to have been made in Edinburgh Canongate. This example is particularly close to the dagger dated 1620, now in the Royal Armouries, taken from Colonel Blood and his companions after their unsuccesful attempt to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671. It appears to be the only one recorded with a sheath-maker's mark and its original by-knife

The mark on the sheath is probably that of Charles Sturgeon (or Strudgeon) of Edinburgh and Edinburgh (Canongate). See C.E. Whitelaw, Scottish Arms Makers, pp. 179 & 213

See C. Blair & J. Wallace, "Scots or still English?", The Scottish Art Review, Vol. 1, No. 9, 1963, pp. 11-15, 34-7; C.J. Ffoulkes, "Daggers attributed to Colonel Blood", The Antiquities Journal, Vol. VII (1927), pp. 139-140; A.R. Dufty (ed.), European Swords and Daggers in the Tower of London, 1974, No. 103b-c