Two French Military Officer Daggers, Circa 1560

Title

Two French Military Officer Daggers, Circa 1560

Subject

French weapons; Military daggers; Archaeological finds; South Carolina artifacts; 16th century arms; Charlesfort; Santa Elena; Bronze daggers; Port Royal Sound artifacts

Description

The bronze hilts of two daggers are shown at the right. They are almost identical, but it's likely that the one on the left side of the photo spent most of the last 450 years buried in South Carolina near Port Royal Sound. It was unearthed by Jack Williams in the early 1960s. The other he purchased from a private collection over a decade later. This second dagger still has its original scabbard. Williams believed that the excavated dagger came from the French settlement of Charlesfort, or from the Spanish occupation that followed called Santa Elena.

Both daggers have cast bronze hilts with steel blades. The period clothing and armor of the French officer that forms each hilt indicates their origin. The officer is leaning on matchlock, his left hand wrapped around its muzzle. His right hand rests on a dagger in a leather carry which was called a frog. Below the frog hangs a pouch to hold balls and cloth patches, a large flask to hold priming powder, and several small flasks to hold premesured single charges. The scabbard is also of cast bronze with classical motifs in high relief. Ornate designs like these would have been expensive, so the daggers must have belonged to men who were well off.

Creator

Unknown craftsperson, French

Source

(1) The History of Charlesfort, University of North Carolina, The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, and The Institute for Southern Studies

(2) Santa Elena History, see the First and Second Spanish Occupations,
University of South Carolina, The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, and The Institute for Southern Studies

(3) Powder Horns in the Southern Tradition, see Plate III on page 11, Museum of Florida History (1985), Powder Horns Exhibit Team Curator: Patricia R. Wickman

Publisher

weaponscollector.com

Date

circa 1560

Contributor

Frederick Eugene Williams III (known as Jack Williams), Collector

Rights

© weaponscollector.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Attribution required: "From the F.E. Williams III Collection at weaponscollector.com

Relation

The F.E. Williams III Collection of Antique Firearms

Format

image/jpeg

Language

United States English

Type

Still Images; Artifact Documentation

Identifier

111-0012

Coverage

Temporal: 16th Century
Spatial: Port Royal Sound, South Carolina

Overall Length

12 inches

Overall Width

2 5/8 inches

Hilt Length

5 1/16 inches

Hilt Material

Bronze

Guard Material

Bronze

Blade Material

Steel

Blade Length

6 15/16 inches

Weight

14 1/4 ounces

Condition

One excavated, one intact with scabbard

Provenance

One excavated from Port Royal Sound area in 1960s, one from private collection