Olympia Auctions
Lot 127
A FINE AND RARE LOWLAND SCOTS BALLOCK DAGGER, EARLY 17TH CENTURY ◉ with sharply tapering robust blade of stiff-diamond section etched and gilt over the greater part of its surface with scrolling foliage, the inscription ‘My Hop[e] and Trest [sic]’ and ‘Is in ye Lord God‘, and with the initials ‘AD’ at the forte (light wear), recessed for the thumb at the ricasso, small arched and fluted gilt iron guard, figured hardwood hilt with a pair of basal nodules each fitted with a silver foliate washer, faceted grip rising to a fluted mushroom-shaped pommel, with silver foliate button en suite, in its original wooden scabbard with tooled leather covering decorated with raised mouldings (very small losses and light wear), flowerheads and saltires, complete with associated accompanying knife, with single-edged blade struck with two cutler’s marks, silver ferrule, ivory grip (cracked) and horn pommel, with provision for a steel (missing) and two loops for suspension, 35.3 cm (the dagger, overall) ProvenanceA Private Collection, LondonAn Important English Private Collection LiteratureClaude Blair and John Wallace, 'Scots Or Still English?', in, The Scottish Art Review, vol. 1, no. 9, 1963, p. 13, pl. 5bPart of a distinctive group of daggers that were almost certainly manufactured in Scotland and probably known at the time as ‘dudgeon daggers’. An example dated 1605 is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.59-1959). For a discussion of this group see Blair and Wallace, op. cit. and Laking 1920, vol. III, pp. 40-41.
