In some the blade is ornamented by ribs cast in relief and by engraving. A good example of the kind from the collection of Mr. Robert Day, F.S.A., is shown in Fig. 308. It was found in the old castle of Colloony,[924] Co. Sligo. One of much the same form as the Wiltshire dagger (Fig. 302), found in the Thames,[925] near Richmond (7-9/10 inches), has at the base a vandyke border and hatched diagonal bands. The blade is slightly ridged but not otherwise ornamented. It is now in the British Museum. One (5½ inches), ornamented at the base in a similar manner, but with a short broad tang and one rivet-hole, was found on Helsington Peat Moss,[926] Westmoreland.
Fig. 308.—Colloony. ½ ———— Fig. 309.—Ireland. 1/1 ——
A blade (7 inches) also ornamented at the base with a vandyke pattern was found at Pitkaithly, Perthshire, and is now in the museum at Edinburgh.
Many blades of daggers from Germany are ornamented. One of the most beautiful that I have seen is that in the museum at Laibach, Carniola. Another (11½ inches), with the hilt complete, and the blade and pommel-plate beautifully ornamented, was found near Vienna.[927] Von Sacken points out that from the shortness of the hilt it is probable that these daggers were held in the same manner as among the Peruvians of the present day, with the two first fingers not round the hilt, but stretched along the blade.
In the museum of the Royal Irish Academy[928] is a broad dagger blade 6⅝ inches long, and engraved with a kind of vandyke pattern at the base. The ornamented portion is shown full size in Fig. 309, kindly lent me by the Academy. It is rather remarkable that the ornaments should extend to so near the base, as they must have been intended to be free of the hilt, in which, in consequence, it would appear that only a small part of the blade can have been inserted. The sides of the socket in the hilt may, however, have extended some distance up the sloping part of the base of the blade.
| Fig. 310. Kilrea. ¼ | Fig. 311. Thames. ¼ | Fig. 312. Thatcham. ¼ |
An ornamented blade of more elongated form (16½ inches) is engraved on the scale of one-fourth in Fig. 310. It was found at Kilrea, Co. Sligo, and is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. There is a vandyke pattern near the base, which is not shown in the cut.
I have a plain blade (14 inches) with merely a central ridge, and with two rivet-holes, which is also from Ireland, and of much the same form.