Serious eye candy! Very yumy!

:eek: :eek: VERY, nice Spiral, super piece,You and JP must have cornered the world market on these, my turn next? ;)
 
Very yummy indeed! Is this a recent acquisition to your collection Spiral?:)
 
Hi Guys!,
Yes indeed Yvsa! its a new aquisition! :D

Your right Keith it is both decorative & functional!, more functional than most even! realy great in the hand! very fast but you can feel the power in it, the Royal kami who made this new what he was doing!

Even the silver is quite heavy duty!, & great leather work too!

Well Rod, you do have quite a few nice kothis I seem to remember! not to mention wootz hanshees & stuff like that,So I reckon your doing ok! ;)

cheers,
Spiral :D
 
Hi Rod,
Yes the grip is a nicly patterned horn, possibly just caribo or yak or something, but magnificent patterns.

The prettyiest Ive seen! Very high luster as well!

I remember JP saying Rhino horn was almost standard on these, but I havent handled enough rhino to be sure.

Cheers,
Spiral
 
The sheath is magnificent, and the blade looks very well proportioned and made as well. Can you describe the blade's finish, lines, etc.? Does it have a convex edge? Lastly, where are your favorite places to search for such khukuries; if you place the answer here, i won't tell anyone... :D

Dan :)
 
Wow, good khuks.

For the record, Rhino horn is quite distinctive in appearance, kina reminds me of porcupine quills glued together in a lengthwise bundle, then shaped. Sirry fer the sketchy description.

Keith
 
These "court" models are all about quality and materials. Even minor functionaries would have them and the type of Royal Crest indicates their area of government.

The OLD gold mounted pieces seem to warrant rhino grips although I have yet to see finer polished horn on any other type. Usually the k&c reflect this quality and material and would have bolsters to match. It would be worth having a set made for this nice kukri.

I don't think this is an early piece, but it looks to be of fine quality. I cannot get confirmation of later manufacture, but these were being made up until the 1950s.

Here is what one type of a rhino horn grip looks like.
rhino.jpg
 
Hi Folks,

Thanks for the compliments!

I recognise the porcupine quil style of Rhino horn at 50ft, that is the most lovely of it all, but I have 3 samples here & only one has that clarity of structure. one is like transparent amber, one is grainy brown & the 3rd is sterotipicle. & two of them are from the same horn!

I notice in your "ebook" JP you illustrate 2 of the more common varieties as well, that dont clearly show the fiberous porcupine structure.

G_fig_2_three_rhino-small.jpg


I am not sure that mine is rhino, if it is two rather nice others of mine probably are also. But I think that while it is a fibourus exotic horn it is just a well selected piece that to the inexpert eye {mine} could decive as bieng of the Rhino specis!

Heres another exotic fiborus green one!
2004-06-23_1844_green.JPG


I must say I am rather shocked you think this kukri is not old & mention the date of up to 1950 JP.

If you reserch Nepalese heraldry you will find that there have been 3 main goverment coat of arms last century & this is actualy a way of dating the court or goverment kothimara.

I realse that the 2 Palace kothis you illustrate are "new" ones so perhaps that is why you assume mine would be as well?

My one was at the very least pre.1920 When they stopped using this coat of arms. & replaced it with the most common one that includes the latin as well as the sanscrit mottos.

personaly , I would say Having handled & studied hundreds of kukris in the last 2 years it is late victorian when I examine the quality of, kukri, silver work & leather stiching.{IMHO}Although I would concede that up untill around 1920 was a slight possibility.{IMHO}

Different royals also had varied private coats of arms. Such as the one illustred in you ebook.
from your middle kukri.

KO_2_3_palace_kukirs.jpg



KO_3A_crest_reshot.jpg


This one was certainly in use up untill at least 1947!

The bottom gold court kukri you illustrate is also a post 1920 pre 1962 coat of arms.That one includes the latin inscription!

Not to mention that the top gold one while a nice looking kothimara is not to my mind A true, Palace, court, Royal or Govermental one as it doesnt carry any coat of arms!

I hope this has helped you somewhat JP about these kothimaras coats of arms from another collecters & student of kukris perspective on the subject.



Cheers,
Spiral.


edited to put photos in correct spot for clarity. :rolleyes: ;) :D
 
I said they made these until 1950 and can find no proof after that. I think yours is probably early 20thc. Old becomes a relative term since that could still put yours at over 100 yrs. FYI the top kukri in fig.2 (purple background) is not a court piece, but would have belonged to a VIP.

I have found that these coats of arms vary greatly and are not a good indication of year of manufacture. In your research you have probably found the variations are for departments/levels and not just age. The GM has some great reference materials that showed what each was but totally threw off my earlier dating system. The Latin scroll is often left off so it shouldn't be used to date a crest (or a kukri). Find Landon's book NEPAL (vol 1) and it should be of help although it takes some cross referencing.

I can now recognize rhino and some other species having tusk, horn and ivory but I always defer to my "experts" at the local zoo. I would swear that the grip on the far left is giraffe but they insist it is from Rhinocerotidae Unicornis.

I really am glad that you can refer to my work and earlier pictures. Some of that info has changed but I no longer can post it. Maybe I should just say, "see the FAQ" instead!
 
Hi, Yes certainly the most recent I have found so far is 1947,

Yes the terms old & new are quite ambiguas to be sure, I think of post 1950 as new, post 1920 as newish & pre 1910 as old! {dont know where that leaves 1910-1920 :eek: }

I would be surprised if this was made after 1914 & I would think 1890 to 1905 much more likely, so we seem to be ending up at a similar ballpark figure, One which I do tend to regard as antique, rather than new.

I can see that the latin or anything else could be left off, but if present it certainly helps with the dating!

I will look out for Landons book, thankyou.

Your early work , photos and faq are certainly the best veiwing source in this field, but as you say some of the tags are not as correct as they could be.
It would be nice to see a buyable online "pdf" version of your book , if printing is know out of the questian.

As for tusk, horn ivory etc, The ivory I can now spot the 6 main specis at a glance, the porcupine rhino horn I can spot, but after that I realy get lost! Need to get a good bunch of samples to study, perhaps I should approach my local zoos as well, probably not as well equiped & staffed as a city one though.

The Faq is still the best online source, but as you know I love learning & always want to know more, I surmise that is probably the same for you.

Cheers,
Spiral
 
Hi Dr Dan,
Thanks for your input, I nearly missed it there! I had a job getting past JPs post! ;)

Well the finnish mirror not quite as high as my foxys folly but considering its age & that it was doine buy hand not a buffer pretty amazing.

The narrow sharpend edge is conves sharpend & the blade itself is slighty hollow forged.

All the lines are very sharp & accurate, the spine above the fullers is the classical 1880/1890s almost T shaped design.
;)

Guess I would class it as a angled spine Bhojpure with slight almost budhume tendencies. :D

Can just about see it was hand forged rather than CAD designed & manufactured! :eek: ;) :D

Best workmanship I have yet seen on blade & scabbard & dammned good quality of silver work! So much better than the average regimental kothi! ;)

Cheers,
Spiral
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top