AMERICAN SMALL SILVER-MOUNTED DAGGER OR DIRK ca.1820
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Description
This very small dagger or dirk is possibly of American manufacture, perhaps made in Baltimore in the early decades of the 1800s. Near-identical examples are pictured in Peter Tuite's U.S. NAVAL OFFICERS: THEIR SWORDS AND DIRKS. The hilt is sterling silver, with a fancy comb-shaped guard. The checkered grip has two cracks, silver furniture is in good condition, 11 cm-long blade is free of rust and pitting. Total length of the dirk as about 20 cm. These are often attributed as naval dirks, but I find it unlikely that even a boy-midshipman were allowed to present such a tiny, delicate piece as his status symbol. More likely a traveling woman would have felt safer knowing it was stowed somewhere in her purse.