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Diplomatic Dagger by Alcoso. 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.



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.

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.

Rarity Rare. 
 
Variations None.
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.