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Diplomatic Service Dagger
One of the most enigmatic daggers on the market today
(see Warnings section for more information). With
minor stylistic differences, it is identical to the Government Official
Dagger, with the exception of the crossguard eagle, which faces in the
opposite direction (to the right) as the left-facing eagle on the pommel. |
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Manufacturers |
The Diplomatic Dagger is most commonly found
with an Alcoso-marked blade. Although a very few examples exist with
blades marked with other manufacturers, the prevaling opinion is that only
Alcoso manufactured this dagger. |
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Construction |
Overall length is
38.5cm (15.2 inches). The fit-and-finish of the
Alcoso Diplomatic dagger is far superior to the fit-and-finish of their
Government Official Dagger. The crossguard is particularly
magnificent, with excellent detail to the eagle head and wings. The
swastika wreath resembles the Eickhorn-styled wreath, in that it is larger
than the wreath as seen on the Alcoso Government Official Dagger. |
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Rarity |
Rare. |
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Variations |
None. |
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Warnings |
What continues to baffle collectors is the
fact that although the model is pictured in the Eickhorn Kundendienst
(Eickhorn product catalog), no Diplomatic dagger by Eickhorn exists with
undisputable provenance. To make the situation even more unclear is
the fact that the Eickhorn catalog actually labels the so-called Diplomatic
dagger as "Dolch fur Staatsbeamte nr. 1791" which roughly translates "dagger
for government officials." We also know from a close study of the
original photograph used to produce the catalog (currently in the JRB
Reference Collection) that the SAME photograph, albeit artistically
touched-up, was used for both model 1791 (and model 1796 (the Government
Official Dagger, called dolch fur diplomaten in the catalog).
What does all this mean? Although we can never know for sure, it is
this author's opinion that the Eickhorn firm used the same photo for the
catalog because they had not produced an example of the right-facing eagle
crossguard, and had to retouch the left-facing eagle crossguard photo to
complete the catalog. What's more, because no legitimate examples
exist in collections today, it is unlikely that Eickhorn ever produced the
dagger. If they did produce it, numbers were so limited that few (or
no) examples survived.
Despite the controversy
surrounding the identity of the dagger, the piece known to collectors as the
"diplomatic" dagger enjoys its reputation as one of the rarer production
daggers that exists. |