While I know 188 is an unknown maker .... the 35 puzzles me. While they may exist I have never personally seen a dagger with a 35 (188/35) makers mark. I'm currently awaiting pics of the piece but would appreciate any comments concerning the makers mark .... thank you -

Gordon

Lakeside has one of those up for sale.

You can see some pictures of it here: http://www.lakesidetrader.com/pics/SS-128d.jpg

Thank you ..... Paul's piece is in much better shape than the one I'm looking at .... Just received pics -

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Pic 8 of 8 .... LAST PIC .... Not exactly what you would call a mint piece .....

Someone has 'dinked' eith that crossguard.
The Roman Numeral 1 dosen't look 'right'; it's too big, ill stamped and is stamped over something else.

I owned one a while back. They have a nice chunky grip that fits beautifully. Very nice eagle also. Nice heavy nickel crossguards. Excellent fit and finish overall. Mine had a painted scabbard, and with solid nickel fittings. Only fault with mine was that someone had heavily buffed the blade to get rid of the grey. Looked nice, but unfortunately was too "enhanced" for my taste. Crossguard was stamped "I" also, and looked proper. Such a shame the blade was buffed, I would have loved to keep it otherwise. Will post pics if I can manage to dig some up.

That roman numeral on the crossguard... Strange. Wonder if it was messed with, or really is just some strange anomoly. I have only seen a few of these 188/35s, and all of them had the roman numeral "I". Old pics of one I used to own to follow. The one Lakeside has looks very nice, I highly doubt it will last long at that price. These are every bit the high quality of the early maker-marked pieces, just not priced accordingly because of the "RZM" stigma. Painted scabbards, but all solid nickel fittings, and awesome grips. If Christmas didn't have me down on funds, I'd snap that one up from Lakeside in a heartbeat!

another