My first antique! Boy am I giddy.

Thanks! Check your PMs by the way

The Cossack Brigade was sort of the whim of the Qajar shah, who was trying to modernize his army. Most contemporaries agree that trying to Westernize the army was a mistake, though, since the irregular Turkmen and Azeri troops were amazing warriors that were handicapped by unfamiliar Western military culture--after all, their mode of combat had worked stupendously since the Seljuk era! But the Shahs felt the Army needed a new image since the political discourse of nation states and armies had become more prevalent, and so they commissioned a "professionalized" army (that wasn't as good as the irregulars ironically). It was modeled after the Russian Cossacks and thus was termed the Iranian Cossack Brigade. The sword is almost identical to many Cossack swords of the same era.

Although I think the "Westernization" of the cavalry--a cavalry, ironically, on which the Western light cavalry were in fact based--was a total mistake, I'm still very glad to preserve a sword from the army my ancestors commissioned.

Thanks again for the congrats!

Way to go Shayan. My first real sword was a rather turista grade Jian that actually had a pretty good blade. It was a dumpster dive find in a big college town on moving day (Boston College) Labor day and Memorial day, as the students came and went were always good pickings.

I had stripped of the remains of the hilt, cut a guard out of a brass nameplate, then slotted a rather large boiler bolt for a handle and pommel. Two pins and some paracord later and I was in business. It lived in the trunks of a couple of my cars from the late eighties into the nineties. A friend was shocked I was lettig it get rusty reppeatedly and offered to do it up right with a better hlt effort. I never saw it again. I moved west, he moved north and then passed away a couple of years ago. I've not approached his better half about it and don't even know if the blade is still around "in the family" as it were.

A couple of years ago, I decided my reproduction list was pretty full and started buying antiques as I have been able too. I had seen some real wants dissapear whie I was still buying high end knives and more reproductions. Even with the repros, I tended to haunt the secondary market and did very well. Of three A&A swords, only one was new and ordered by me. I had bought a neat old lance head, hafted as a dagger during all this and my next antique purrchase was a yataghan I had watched at a dealer some four years.

The past year has seen me juggling some things around and maybe going a bit overboard but grab while I can was the philosophy and they are nice pieces. I was bad today and spent a chunk on more books. The books are neat because you can visually own and learn a great deal for a bit less money.

I'm glad you got a deal on it. I'm bickering with someone on a knife board about who might be turning out better fakes, China or India. I think I lost it initially when he was indicating these swords must be fakes because they don't have sharkskin and silver wire. Let alone single ring scabbards that never existed in real time

Ah well. Keep your eyes open. there are a lot of swords in the UK priced better than they are over here.

Cheers

Hotspur; I may be done buying for a year or so but one never knows what might come along

Shayan,
I have not done any restoration to the sword. The blade would have originally been engraved and had blue and gilt decoration. In the years between the original owner parting with it and me buying it, the blade was polished many times. There are faint traces of engraving and no traces of blue and gilt. The same goes for the brass hilt. It would have been gilded as well, but now there are only traces. As a 14 year old who had seen my father polish brass candlesticks, I thought I should do the same with the hilt. There was not any original patina to damage, so I don't think I did any further harm, but I stopped polishing it about 10 years ago and the brass has a nice old-looking patina. The blade is slightly pitted, but has been polished so many times that even the pitting is pretty bright.

Glen,
Show us your yataghan one more time. ;D

Well, ok. This had come from Collectors Firearms at a time when their online inventory was a lot more flush but already depleting quickly. I first noticed this listing sometime around the fall of 2002 and springtime 2006 saw me finally calling them up. It was actually because something else I had watched sold out from under me. Walrus ivory and a gold alloy. The divider strip is sheet on a horn backing.





The steel on many of these is a crucible steel, a variety not accurately called Wootz but the same methodology of production. The touchmark common on many of these is a religious plea of courage "ya ali"


Here is a blade section as I was carefully working on the polish. Someone had loved it as a machete and it was pretty scuffed up. The rep on the phone even refered to it as "that machete thing, or whatever it is."


Here is a closer shot of the mark and surround that shows the nest of steel structure indicative of crucible steels.


Another segment of a blade I had studied even two years before finding this one (1999-2000) and a nice shot of unforged pattern evident in Wootz and similar crucible steels.


I still don't have good pictures of the polish as it is now. I had removed the scuffing but stopped before removing original grinding marks. I am going through the same process with that eagle sabre and still have more to do on both. The horn backing of the divider was in trouble as well but I have stuck that back together with superglue. the following shots show some of the divider detail more closely and the few hairline cracks in the ivory.
Bigger than life, I'll just link them here.
usera.imagecave.com/Hotspur/Yataghan/yataghan002.jpg
usera.imagecave.com/Hotspur/Yataghan/yataghan005.jpg

There is currently a cousin to this one over on the SFI classifieds with horn grips and others do pop up selling for less because of condition problems. If mine had retained its scabbard and had never been abused as a tool, it would have sold for three or four times what I had paid if listed at Oriental arms or 101 Antiques.

I have a thing for bone and ivory. It has been a passion for stag that made me spend on a Vince Evans bowie and a Kevin Cashen bowie. Other knife buys over the past decade have also cut deeply into the antique and sword fund in general. I just yesterday dumped another chunk into books and could easily have doubled or tripled that outlay. Truth be told, there are another baker's dozen of dealer listings I am stalking but have really exceeded what is rational for blades in one year unless I wanted to make a business of it. Some do exactly that.


Cheers

Hotspur; maybe it really is time to let some stuff go

Well, the 2 swords I got at the auction. The M1852 Naval Officers Sword and the Knights Templar. People here say it could be pre 19th century, so they're over 100 years old, or close. Hope that qualifies for "antique".
I've always loved swords, and my son (16) has taken a considerable liking to the Templar, mainly due to the mystic of the name and the etchings and detail. The motto, "Faithful unto Death...." means quite a bit to us, as we are devout Christians. He'll probably get it for his 17th b-day next week.
The Naval Sword is quite nice and I need to get the wire fixed. Thats the only thing to do to it and it'll go on display, or used to finance another purchase.
I love history and these often forgotten pieces are tangible evidence of the lengths that people would go in order to not only make war, but prepare for peace.
Good job Shayan...May I ask why the 3 week wait? Is it being shipped from Iran or the middle east? If so, man that must be a story as well!
Congrats and happy waiting...LOL

Nice buy shayan.
Now all you need is one of those Cossack moustaches!