Abbotsford Swords and dagger.
A POLYGAR’S KNIFE
A WEAPON with a broad curved blade. The blade damascened with gold in cuneiform and line designs. The handle is mounted with brass and ornamented with quatrefoil and crescents in high relief, and enriched by 26 small rubies. Length 25 inches.
A PERSIAN DAGGER AND SHEATH
This dagger is 14 inches in length. The sheath is of wood covered with red velvet. The hilt is of iron, beautifully damascened in gold, in flowers and leaves. The blade is slightly fluted. The mounting of the sheath is also beautifully engraved.
A MALAY KRIS
With grotesque ivory handle in the form of a bird, fluted. Length 18 inches.
CASE OF HUNTING-KNIVES, OR COUTEAUX DE CHASSE
This case of hunting knives, called also a “Slashing Hanger,” is said to have belonged to Prince Charles, which its apparent date and French origin may corroborate. The hilts and sheath are ornamented with chased ormolu mounts of the time of Louis XIV. The handle of the large knife bears a figure of Diana. The case also contains three small knives, a two-pronged fork, and a pointed instrument with a perforated hole like the eye of a large needle. The case is 20 1/2 inches long, by 3 3/4 inches at its broadest part.
ROB ROY’S DIRK
“A very long old Highland dirk, with Andrea Ferrara, or also known as Andrew Ferrara, double channelled blade, formerly belonged to Rob Roy.” 1 It is 24 1/2 inches long. The blade is 20 inches, with a carved interlaced handle finished on the top with a flat circular plate of silver, and a knob. The sheath is black leather, mounted with four bands of silver, two of which head pockets containing a knife and a two-pronged fork. Both handles are carved with interlaced work. The sheath has a plain silver ring at upper end. This dirk is, we may hope, the same which is connected with a dramatic scene at the close of Rob Roy’s life, given as follows in the historical preface to the novel. “There is a tradition… that while on his deathbed he (Rob Roy) learned that a member of a family with whom he was at enmity proposed to visit him. ‘Raise me from my bed,’ said the invalid, ‘throw my plaid around me, and bring me my claymore, dirk, and pistols it shall never be said that a foeman saw Rob MacGregor defenceless and unarmed’.”
A TARTAR SWORD IN BRASS-MOUNTED SHAGREEN SCABBARD
The slightly convex grip is of fluted ebony, mounted in brass and engraved in floral and foliated patterns with ground in small raised dots. The sheath is of wood covered with shagreen and ornamented by three raised oval medallions in brass, with the same floral patterns and dotted ground throughout. Length 23 inches.
Source: Abbotsford; the personal relics and antiquarian treasures of Sir Walter Scott. Illustrated by William Gibb. By Maxwell-Scott, Mary Monica. London A. and C. Black 1893.
