DAGGER

An incomplete copper alloy quillon from a medieval dagger (AD c. 1200 - c. 1500), missing one of its quillons and half of the central boss.

The surviving quillon has convex edges so that it narrows and then expands towards the terminal. The quillon is facetted so that it has a hexagonal cross-section. The terminal is rounded and measures 11.3 mm in diameter. It is decorated on the end with four radiating grooves, and on four sides with pairs of parallel grooves. Roughly a third of the way along the length of quillon from the terminal is a circumferential groove.

The incomplete central boss would have been oval in shape and rectangular in cross-section. At its centre was a rectangular slot for the tang of the dagger, measuring approximately 15 mm by 7 mm.

Projecting from the intact side of the central boss is a pelta- or axe-shaped projection decorated with three dashed lines.

Overall, the object measures 39.3 mm long, 39.2 mm wide and 11.0 mm thick. It weighs 20.63 g.

Similar dagger guards have been recorded on The Portable Antiquities Scheme database. For example, see finds: HAMP-C87776, IOW-3D7522; BERK-1F11D4; BH-DAC185; HESH-1C7790; IOW-585324; SOM-2780A4; SUSS-9322F7 and WMID-95DEB5.

Published examples of quillon-daggers are illustrated in Ward Perkins J. B. 1940. "London Museum Medieval Catalogue". 38-42, plates VI-VII. Ward Perkins states that these artefacts are military daggers with the earliest examples surviving from the 13th century. There are "frequent representations in the Maciejowski Bible, c. 1250, passim, depicting a short, sword-shaped weapon, with quillons drooping slightly toward the point, and a lobed or circular pommel". This type of military dagger was common until the close of the fourteenth century when they were ousted in popularity by the rondel dagger. However, Ward Perkins notes that "they by no means went out of use at this time and representations of them occur at all periods".

Brian Read suggests of similar dagger quillons in 'Metal Artefacts of Antiquity' (2001), nos 628 and 629, that these are of later Medieval, 15th century date.