helen

lol, I would have enjoyed it at your school Melvyn! If only things were that straight forward nowadays...there's a lot of red tape surrounding the carting of weapons around between our store (the other side of Oxford) and the Museum. But I suppose it's all for the best in the end, especially regarding security. Back in the late 60s some chap came in on a 'research' visit to study an early revolver. He'd been in several times prior to this, making drawings of the gun in its display case, and had evidently sent the specifics off to Hong Kong to have a replica made. When he came in for the research visit and was left alone with the weapon for a few minutes, he did a swap. The imposter weapon went back on display and went unnoticed as such for a little while! The real one was eventually recovered by the police and now we are planning to display both the original and the replica together!

I'm noticing the variations in the shape of the point, from the quite acute, one-edged point of Mervyn's example, through to the more 'squared-off' point on the ivory and palm wood ones (looks similar to me to the tips of Napoleonic British issue cavalry sabres which took their lead from oriental examples), finally to the more triangular and symmetrical 'broadsword' type-shape of one of the last plain ones I posted. Would be good if other members could offer their views on the reasons for this variation - just local style or functional?

Oh dear they are getting more and more boring, sorry! Burmese dha, collected before 1911 by Richard Carnac Temple (ex-Gurkha, port-commissioner of Rangoon, etc). Plain wooden hilt with copper alloy butt and ferrule. No scabbard. length = 91 cm.

Plain Burmese dha with wooden scabbard and cane-wrapped, wooden grip. Acquired by the Morland family while on military service in India, early C19th.

Mervyn, Found a weapon similar looking to yours with koftgari figures and inscriptions (although shorter) on the 'Dha Research Index' (click on link). There it says that this type of dha is sometimes used ritually in "nat" (spirit) festivals, such as the Festival of the Spirits in Taungbyon, Burma and is therefore called a 'temple dha' by some. Helen

N.B. Among Thais I believe it is known as a DARB or DAARB.

Dha, Burma. Palm wood cylindrical handle wrapped in plaited cane, wooden scabbard banded with plaited cane, red cotton cord sling and tassel. Collected by John Henry Hutton sometime between 1909 and 1933.

A very beautiful weapon. I read once, that as well as embellishing their weapons with beautiful jewels, the elite historical Burmese soldiers from Ava used to have bits of gold, silver and precious stones in their arms, presumably embedded under the skin in boyhood! We have around a dozen or so Burmese dhas at the Pitt Rivers Museum, although only two on display. They vary from the dull and functional to the ornate and ceremonial. I will post a few examples here, starting the lovely ivory-handled one Mervyn mentioned... Collected by Henry Baden-Powell (half-brother of Lord B-P of Scout fame), sometime in late C19th while serving in the Indian Civil Service. Elephant ivory handle, carved with Hindu figures (Rama etc) and wooden scabbard encased in silver. Max length of blade is 84 cm, 89 with sheath.

Yes, beautiful model and to echo the above post, how did you transport it in one piece? Interesting that Mauritius was famous for model ship making - I didn't know that.

Mervyn, as a side note, I see from your experience and interests that you might wish to see more of any police material. I'm not sure off-hand what we have, save more in the 'truncheon' department, but I will post anything I find in the museum's depths!

As for the policy of displaying things in and out of sheaths, every museum is different. As Brian said, all cases are environmentally controlled for internal UV and humidity levels but ultimately, we tend to simply display whatever's the most interesting; if the light is such that you cannot make out the hamon on a Japanese sword, then it may be displayed sheathed. If it happens to be a very old blade, in newer furniture, we'll display them separately - especially to show the often staggering difference in condition between a C14th Japanese blade and a European one of the same age! The Conservation department would prefer all blades to be sheathed but sometimes this is not possible because with the passage of time, the organic materials used to make the sheath/scabbard have hardened or swollen (i.e. wood/leather) and the blade no longer fits inside! With Japanese swords especially though, the one thing we do make sure we do, is to display the blades the traditional way - horizontally with the blade facing the ceiling.

Peter - thanks for your comment: I agree, that would have to be a rather small bottom! The shape is rather odd although not anything to do with the kris/keris I shouldn't think, which, by and large has a pistol grip in all its forms, whether the blade be straight or wavy. It doesn't really bear any resemblance to families of daggers and blades from either Africa or Asia. It was collected in 1931, long after the general's death, and I cannot help but wonder if it isn't a native weapon at all but instead evidence of the German colonial presence in Namibia at this time. This would help explain the European 'shooting-stick' style shape of the handle.

Mervyn, thanks for the detail about how the blowpipes were made! Unfortunately we don't have any African examples. We do have more Zulu material (over 100 weapons), but only a small percentage on display, and even less on the website. We're endeavouring to make more of it publicly accessible. For example we have two knobkerries that were given to the donor by Cetewayo himself (apparently!). I will double-check the documentation we have on the assegais but I doubt we have a better photograph. I can check though. Glad you found the website of some interest and I will continue to post relevant parts of our collection on GMIC as we are always coming across things which we'd like to know more about and I've been impressed and enlightened by the vast swathes of knowledge and experience the members, such as yourself, bring to the forums to help novices like me! Helen

karud: collected ?1930s in NW Frontier region, Pakistan. Blade is decorated with a damascened/etched pattern of scrolling leaves and small animals, such as birds and horses. The ivory handle is richly decorated with silver, incised with floral patterns and painted with red pigment to imitate enamel. The wooden sheath is bound with leather and decorated with stamped circles and indented lines. This leather is covered at the locket and chape with two large sheets of silver and two smaller silver bands, all decorated with repousse flowers.

Mervyn, Pitt Rivers Museum, just down the road from the Ashmolean and part of the same group of Oxford University Museums. We have a considerable weaponry collection due to the career and interests of our founder, General Pitt Rivers. After service in the army he was commissioned to research rifle technology to inform new developments in firearms. Hence we have his large firearm collection - examples dating from the C15th to the C19th with some rare experimental models - as well as plenty of historical arms and armour, which he accumulated principally to illustrate his contemporary scientific views about evolutionism in human societies. We're currently working on revamping our weapons gallery with a view to reopening it in 2010. We also hope to add more info to the website so I hope you will find that of interest. See our Arms and Armour Virtual Gallery to see what we've added so far: PRM Arms and Armour Virtual Gallery Helen

Lovely weapon and great to have the sheath too. We have a similar one in the Museum that I know of, from the Pashtun people of the NW Frontier, Pakistan. Alternative name is KARUD. Will post photo tomorrow. Certainly used in Afghanistan as well, part of a family of Central Asian stabbing/armour-piercing knives known as PESHQABZ/PESHKABZ, usually with ivory handle. The name PESHQABZ is Persian for 'fore-grip' I think. The blades are usualy straight, T-section, although there are some examples with a slight reverse curve blade. Similar weapon made by tribes of the Khyber called a CHOORA. Probably something in Egerton about the various types and provenances.

[Mervyn, thank you for your insightful comments. These are the only named 'sword-sticks' we have although we have other items listed as combination weapons (i.e. axe and concealed dagger/mace and concealed dagger and gun. I will try to find pictures for you if you are interested. Unfortunately not everything in the museum has photographs - we have nearly 300,000 objects and photographing them all is a big task! As for the first sword-stick, yes, when I first saw it, I assumed the material was shagreen, like that on Japanese hilts. But closer inspection reveals that it is a red, bumpy, brittle shell-like substance that's been painted black - presumably to resemble ray skin. That's what prompted someone to suggest plaster but it is just a guess. This particular object is packed away in store so we would need to get it out to re-examine it. Helen P.S a query related to the Namibian one...as you say, boring out an aperture for a full-length blade would be hard to do manually. Are there no naturally occurring hollow trees in that part of Africa, like bamboo elsewhere in the world, that could be used for such purposes? What type of wood were native spear and club shafts made of? We have many, many of these but the documentation rarely expands on the materials used beyond 'hardwood'. Thanks.

have posted new thread on our swordsticks but just realised I've put it in the firearms rather than swords section and am not sure if I can move it. Nevermind. Hope they're of some interest. Interesting to hear about the usage of walking stick guns in SA.

Swordsticks from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford for those who may be interested... Clockwise from top left (based on information given at time of acquisition): English, early C19th? Wooden hilt/sheath, covered in substance (?plaster) then painted black. Acquired 1927. English, collected before 1845. Bamboo with brass ferrule and antler pommel in form of a shell. Acquired 1927. Okavango River, Andara, Namibia. Africa. Native sword-stick of the Mampukush people [Mbukushu]. Acquired 1931. Peshawar, Pakistan. Sword-stick sheathing two blades: a short-edged dagger and pointed, diamond-section rapier blade. Locally known as 'Gupti'. Inscription in Hindi on tube reads 'Madhu-sudan' (destroyer of the demon Madhu, an epithet of Vishnu or Krishna).

I appreciate that it is probably a 19th century gun, but the Museum's interest is in when it was used and who by. Since we know it was used in battle at El Fasher in 1916 and this was the year the Ottomans officially joined forces with the Sudanese, it makes sense for us to say it's the latest possible date it could have come into Sudan. But you're right to make the point it would have been used much earlier than this. In addition, I didn't realise that Egypt, who took over Sudan in 1820, technically owed fealty to the Ottoman Empire. So, the fact that its a Turkish gun could mean it was traded/brought to Africa any time during the mid-late C19th. Thanks.

Leigh, thank you. I wasn't sure if the colours had standardized meanings or were changeable, so thank you for establishing that. I suppose that makes sense in order to prevent the enemy reading your every move!

Mervyn, Thank you, yes, I was directed to a site by google where the German model c. 1895 certainly seems to match the look of our smaller one. So it means they could both be German. See here if you haven't already: http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-weapon...nal-pistols.htm As for the licence, thank you for the word of caution. Luckily, we have a very efficient member of staff who deals with such matters with the police and Home Office etc and fortunately we are covered for all our collections, ranging from 'Section 58' antique firearms right the way through to section 5! Helen P.S. I read with interest your post about the Zulu War sword-stick. We have four such items in the Museum: 2 British, 1 Indian, and 1 Namibian. I will try to dig out some pictures if you are interested. We also have a number of walking-stick guns - the next stage in the object's evolution!