SOLAntique Polish Dagger With Polish Lithuanian Coat Of Arms 19th Century Poland
A very rare antique Polish dagger made in Poland in the first half of the 19th century.
DESCRIPTION:
The elaborately carved bone hilt with a crossguard is finely sculptured in low relief on one side of the grip with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth coat of arms with a Polish Crowned Eagle, and the Lithuanian Pogonia surmounted on the top by the crown.
On the other side is sculptured in low relief portrait of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, surmounted with a ribbon inscribed "Sigismund I."
The bone hilt of this dagger is carved in the same manner as the three daggers in the Hermitage Museum collection (see REFERENCES for details).
The silver pommel is set with a natural green agate stone.
The dagger is mounted with a sturdy double-edged tapered, wavy flamboyant steel blade with a medial ridge and a flat forte.
REFERENCES: Three Polish daggers in a similar style are in the collection of the most important world museum, the State Hermitage Museum of Art and Culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and are published in the book "Europejski oręż paradny XVII-XIX wieku ze zbiorów Państwowego Ermitażu w Leningradzie" by Anatol W. Soldatenko (European parade weapons of the 17th-19th centuries from the collection of the State Hermitage in Leningrad).
The above catalog is from the Castle Museum in Malbork exhibition in 1991 (illustrations page 68, descriptions page 24).
Please see the last three pictures attached to the listing.
Hermitage is the largest art museum in the world and has only the most important objects of world art.
Originally, the daggers were in the collection of the Russian field marshal Ivan Paskevich at the Gomel Palace and were transferred by the Soviet government to the Hermitage Museum in 1923.
Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich, as the commander-in-chief of the Russian Empire, suppressed the Polish November Uprising in 1830–1831. And for these merits, he was appointed "Prince of Warsaw" and awarded the office of "The Namiestnik" (Viceroy) of the Kingdom of Poland.
After the "November Uprising," many important art objects looted by the Russians from the collections of Polish aristocrats and nobility were sent to Russia as war booty and placed in the collections of the Russian Tsar and various Russian aristocrats.
It is, therefore, very likely that these three daggers from the Paskiewicz collection came into his possession at that time.
The buyer will be provided with a copy of the pages from the mentioned references and a certificate of authenticity.
MEASUREMENTS:
Overall length: 31cm (12.2 inches)
Length of the blade: 19.5 cm (7.68 inches).
Width of the blade at the forte: 3 cm (1.18 inches)
The thickness of the blade at the forte: 5.58 mm.
CONDITION: Showing age and usage. The bone hilt is in excellent condition, free of cracks or repairs, and the steel blade is pitted.
