Posted 5 years ago
Bodkin
(1 item)
Antique shop find. Handle is covered with molded leather as is sheath, metal is covered in delicate chipping and wave line marks. Center weight? Throwing dagger? Paper knife? Would love to know Country / likely era of origin and usage?
Looking at the edge and also the length in your hand I would say it is a letter opener.
Two curious things - it's center weighted which seems unusual for a simple letter opener and also (not on photos) there is a thin belt loop on the sheath (will update photos).
Well perhaps it isn't, however, there is a huge market for these in Europe for the tourist trade. They make exact miniatures of a real dagger, sword, knife etc. They even make them after marine corps knives. The better ones are made in Spain. Fancy ones are made of sterling or enameled. They even have one when in the sheath it forms the Eiffel tower. Looking at the blade and length of the one above matches what I am speaking of. As far as your belt loop, if the original knife this was copied from had one then the scaled down reproduction would match perfectly to scale. Not trying to burst your bubble just explaining what I have seen.
That's cool. More interested in its origin really, first thought was India but drew an absolute blank looking any further.
Being unmarked it could be from anywhere. Looking at the belt loop I seriously doubt this was made in Europe.
Modern tourist trinket-- not everything in antique shops has age.
scott
It wasn't expensive, just a curiosity purchase, frankly a lot of flea markets call themselves antique shops.
As long as you enjoy it then it doesn't really matter. If you intend collecting them there are thousands of them for sale online. Everyone from eBay to esty to pintrest has them. Normally you can get them for $5 or $10 unless they are super fancy or made of something like sterling.