Parrying dagger

Dividing parrying dagger, the hilt made up of a flattened, spherical pommel vertically ridged and with circular button; spiral, wire-bound grip; guard horizontally curved of oval section widening towards the ends and large hilt arms; single side-ring enclosing a pierced shell; all of plain steel with remains of gilding on the shell.

The short, stout blade is of hexagonal section. Upon drawing a bolt on the ricasso a catch is released and the blade divides into three parts like A862, 864-6. The outer edges of the blades are held by slits in the ends of the hilt arms.

German, about 1620.

Skelton II, pl. XCII fig. 5.

Provenance: Sir. S. R. Meyrick; Frédéric Spitzer.

Exhibited: South Kensington, 1869 (Illustrated London News, LIV, 1869, illus. on p. 224, no. 21).

Compare the divided daggers in the Hermitage, Leningrad (Gille, pl. CII) and at Bern, no. 1198.

Possibly one of two similar daggers described under no. 33 of the list of swords and daggers acquired by Meyrick from Domenic Colnaghi, about 1818, now in the library of the Royal Armouries.

Meyrick's successor, William Meyrick, exhibited 'two triple-bladed daggers' at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857 (Planché, 1857, p. 16).