‡ AN ITALIAN LEFT-HAND DAGGER, CIRCA 1600-20 Lot n° 141

‡ AN ITALIAN LEFT-HAND DAGGER, CIRCA 1600-20 with slender blade of diamond-section (the point blunt), rectangular ricasso struck with a mark (perhaps ‘M’ crowned) on each face, iron hilt of flattened rounded bars, comprising a pair of slightly drooping quillons engraved with scrolls around the terminals, small ring-guard and barrel-shaped pommel decorated en suite, and the grip with an early binding of plaited wire between ‘Turk’s heads’, 35.5 cm overall A left-hand dagger of related form, with a very similar blade and perhaps struck with the same mark is illustrated in Schneider and Stüber, 1980, pp.252, no. 502.