This is a really special Fire Official's dagger that I'm sure most of you have not seen before. In fact, no one I know has seen this model dagger previously. When I initially saw it, I didn't know what to make of it as there are a lot of differences between it & what we see more commonly everyday. The condition was slightly less that I would ideally like but it was clearly a dagger for a fire official. Despite the questions I had & the condition, I still had to have it.
I sent it off to Tom Wittmann to get an idea what he thought of it. Tom was very impressed by the dagger's condition because of it's age. When I inquired which period Tom thought the dagger dated from, he responded somewhere between 1860 & 1890. Needless to say I was floored & at the same time ecstatic. But what Tom said sort of made sense to me considering the crossguard looked an awful lot like some of those pre 1900 Naval dagger crossguards. Based on the blade etch & flaming pommel, I thought it looked a lot like a WKC/WK&C product; Tom agreed.
The scabbard appeared to be a standard Fire Official type scabbard constructed from black leather & standard, simple type scabbard fittings. A set of dagger hangers was used with this dagger suspended from two hanger loops, both affixed to the scabbard's top fitting. Sadly, I don't have any sufficient pictures of the scabbard but will add one later.
But I digress, here is the dagger I'm gushing about.
