English Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger

LATE 15TH-EARLY 16TH CENTURY A.D.

12 1/4 in. (178 grams, 31 cm).

Comprising a single-edged blade, whittle tang and cylindrical grip terminating in a bulbous openwork pommel.

Provenance

Acquired 1960s-1990s.
Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.

Literature

Cf. Gilliot, C., Armes & Armures/Weapons & Armours, Bayeux, 2008, pp.142-143, for similar daggers; for a similar handle, see a specimen in Leeds Armoury, inventory no.X.1705.

Footnotes

Carried universally throughout Europe, the kidney dagger or ballock dagger (dague a rognons) seems to have been used by all classes of society. Early effigies and brasses prove that the ballock dagger was a knightly weapon. Later on, the more elaborate daggers suggest that it was also a weapon of the emerging merchant and artisan classes. Of course there are also some very simple and crude examples which would probably have been used by the peasants.

CONDITION

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LOT 0264