Out of the SA crypt ,, and the highlight of my collection,,this maker is featured for the first time on the GDC. This is not a recent pick up, as this has come out of the advanced collection of the late Dr Julian Milestone. What was left of his collection that did not go to the Max auction in 1992-93 went to a husband and wife dealer team Marvin and Pearl Mattox and this early SA example into my hands in 1997. The craftmanship on this example makes it a Sweetheart from Steinbach Hallenberg. This dagger is untouched since it has been in my possession ,and this one I will respect! This example rates a 9 on the McSaar list. IMO it is a rarely seen maker and maybe should be a 10! (sorry Mike
) Schmalkalden which is deemed the “Other Solingen” made some great homegrown edged weapons that only “Mom and Pop shops” can procure! What makes this dagger maker special in craftmanship along with the other smaller firms ,,like a fine red wine ,,they were not massed produced and made in limited numbers. Makes my skin crawl ,that they were assigned an RZM number of M7/48,, but I never seen a late example of this maker, IMO,, I think they would rather close their doors than to sell their souls to the RZM. Here are a few photos of my Otto Simon.
