AN AFGHAN DAGGER (PESH-KABZ), DATED 1879 with tapering reinforced blade of T-section, chiselled a

AN AFGHAN DAGGER (PESH-KABZ), DATED 1879 with tapering reinforced blade of T-section, chiselled along the back-edge with a slender rib, shaped tang (the back-strap missing), fitted with a pair of ivory grip-scales (age cracks, a contemporary repair), inlaid with the inscription `Kandahar 1879` in hatched silver letters on one side, in its leather-covered wooden scabbard with silver locket and a silver band each embossed with scrolling foliage, the latter enclosing a chiselled iron chape 32.3 cm; 12 ¾ in blade Provenance Anthony Tirri Collection, illustrated in A. C. Tirri 2003, p. 245. On 26th May 1879 Britain signed the treaty of Gandamak after which they occupied the Khyber Pass and paid the Amir of Afghanistan an annual subsidy. On 3rd September of the same year Afghan troops murdered the British legation at Kabul.