dagger;
sheath
- Museum number
- Af,SLMisc.1830.a-b
- Description
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Dagger (a) made of iron; double-edged iron blade with two channels etched down length; carved wooden handle decorated with geometric patterns. Dagger sheath (b) made of leather; tooled leather sheath with tassels at open end.
- Dimensions
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Height: 27.50 centimetres (a)
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Height: 20 centimetres (b)
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Width: 4 centimetres (a)
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Width: 4 centimetres (b)
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Depth: 2 centimetres (a)
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Depth: 3 centimetres (b)
- Curator's comments
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Sir Hans Sloane’s ‘Miscellanea’ catalogue is a bound volume in Central Archives containing seven separate catalogues: ‘Miscellanies’, ‘Antiquities’, ‘Seals’, ‘Pictures’, ‘Mathematical Instruments’, ‘Agate Handles’ and ‘Agate Cups, Bottles, Spoons’. Each contains numbered entries that list and describe objects collected by Sloane between the 1680s and 1750s. Each catalogue begins with object number one.
Text from Sloane Miscellanea catalogue: Miscellanea Miscellanies 1830 "1830. A Capashears knife from Guinea. Id."; id referring to Miscellanea Miscellanies 1822 "1822. A large flat roundish earthen ware Jarr of an ask colour made by the Indians at Berbices near Surinam befor the coming of the Europeans into the West Indies from Capt. Walker."
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Sloane's catalogue of Miscellanies lists a number of other items that were acquired with this knife and sheath, which still bears his original label with the catalogue number 1830. Items 1820 to 1829 in the catalogue included objects from New England and Surinam as well as this knife described as from 'Guinea'. Captain Walker's collection was sold c. 1736, presumably when Sloane acquired these items. See see Brent Nelson, ed., 'A Catalogue of Rarities Belonging to William Walker (c. 1736),' http://drc.usask.ca/projects/ark/XML/WalkA/ British Library SL MS 1968 ff.172v-173v
Sloane corresponded in 1739/40 wiith a William Walker of Rhode Island (letter SL MS 4056, f. 211) a physician so presumably not the same William Walker.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Acquisition notes
- It is unclear why Baron Cadogan has been included as a previous owner. Sloane's catalogue states that this object came from 'Capt Walker'.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af,SLMisc.1830.a-b
- Additional IDs
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CDMS number: Af1753D10.1830a-b (old CDMS no.)
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Miscellaneous number: Af.1830 (mis-identified as)
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Miscellaneous number: Af186?C11830
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Miscellaneous number: Af1973,Q.1954
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Miscellaneous number: Af1973Q1954
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Miscellaneous number: Af1979,01.319.a-b
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Sloane Miscellanea Catalogue number: 1830 (Miscellanies)