Knife with "Thekenbeschlag"

[Martin Moser]

Finally finished a scabbard I have been planning to do for more than a year now: I liked those so-called "Thekenbeschläge" (is there an established English name for those?) since I first saw them and espescially this one with the ring-pommel sword and beneficiarii standard incorporated:



Lit.: Flügel, Christof. Ein silberner Thekenbeschlag mit militärischen Motiven. In : Dedicatio Hermann Dannheimer zum 70. Geburtstag, Kallmünz 1999, 116-122.

[gneuspartak]

Very interesting , Martin!
Is it knife by end of 2 century?

[Robert]

Great work, Martin! A good excuse to up your laudes, too! Did you open-cast the silver of the Thekenbeschlag (I do wonder what the English is ...). What is the size of the knife?

[Martin Moser]

Did you open-cast the silver of the Thekenbeschlag (I do wonder what the English is ...). What is the size of the knife?

Hi Robert,

no, I actually did the open-work with a jeweller's saw :-P P , since it is a one only. The overall length of knife and scabbard as in the picture is 20.9cm, the Thekenbeschlag alone is 10.3cm.

[jvrjenivs]

Well done Martin. And yeah, I know that 'planning to do' thing. Also have such a type of scabbard somewhere in my head for some time now, but so much more to work on first. Anyway, as my late Roman kit is improving I probably will soon make one of such scabbards. Anyways, thanks for sharing. It definably push me to indeed make me one some time next year.

[dave budd]

nice bit of silver work lol:

[Robert]

actually, I was wondering about the shape of the blade itself myself. If this is a curved blade knife, the shape of the sheath allows it to be stuck in the sheath either way, very pratical !!

[Martin Moser]

nice bit of silver work lol:

Of the sheath only the metal fitting (dress plate?) is left, nothing else, so there is no way to tell what form the sheath itself once had or what kind of knife it carried. There is only one find of a Thekenbeschlag together with a blade, and that is a straight one. The exact form of the sheath is uncertain in that case as well.

[Robert]

How wide was the blade found in relation to the "beschlag"?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Nice work Martin. The same style as the one Eric Konig makes!

[jvrjenivs]

For those interested in more of these kind of scabbards, I would suggest you to get a copy of
Ludwig Berger: Durchbrochene Messerfutterale (Thekenbeschläge) aus Augusta Raurica
Ein Beitrag zur provinzialrömischen Ornamentik, 2002. 122 Seiten mit 113 Abbildungen, 10 Tafeln und 7 Karten (Forschungen in Augst 32).

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I understand they are found in quite a wide context over several hundred years of provinence.
Quite a few examples.

[Medicus matt]

That's lovely work!
Do the rivets go all the way through to the back of the sheath or just through the first layer of leather?

[Martin Moser]

Do the rivets go all the way through to the back of the sheath or just through the first layer of leather?

The two down where the sheath widens go through all layers, the one at the top only through the upper layer (to state the obvious ;-) ) )

[Martin Moser]

I understand they are found in quite a wide context over several hundred years of provinence.
Quite a few examples.

The Roman ones styled like that only start from the end of the 2nd century and seem to have been most popular in the 3rd IIRC (cf. the source jvrjenius cited above). I think there are more than 200 finds of such metall fittings by now.