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HISTORICAL / MILITARY OBJECTS

Bowie. England (?) Second half of the 19th century.

A beautiful example of a bowie-type knife with a lanceolate "spear point" blade, smooth and polished ivory scales with a small metallic piece embedded in one of them to engrave the name of its owner, as was traditional, executed in alpaca, just like the knob and guard. These last two pieces have an elegant ribbed decoration, enhancing the design of the rope as a whole. Leather scabbard with gilding as a perimeter guard and a central ornament also gilt of phytomorphic inspiration; It has a smooth metal sheath and toe cap, the first with a button as a hook. Measures. Blade length: 23.6 cm. Total length: 34.7 cm.


The blade is robust and lanceolate in shape and although the bowie knife is usually related to blades with a cut or "clip" at its end, in its golden age (approximately 1850 to 1880) blades of this type called "spear point " or spearhead were very popular among its users.


Although this blade does not have a stamp that allows us to identify its manufacturer or its origin, the style and construction of the knife suggest with some certainty its English origin in the period mentioned above. Hypothesis that is strengthened by observing its sheath, made of moroccan leather, "extremely thin material, similar to a very fine leatherette or sheepskin", described in English-language literature as "veneer" or "morocco-like leather", generally colored and edged with gold stamping. This material was glued on a pressed cardboard body, and the whole, reinforced with a metal curb and tips.” [1]


Note:

1. Abel Domenech, From the facón to the bowie, Buenos Aires, El Álamo Editions, 1988, p. 198.


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