Yemen, Ottoman Protectorate. A Jambiya, c.1900

This jambiya has a 350 mm long curved double-edged steel blade, magnetic, with sharpened edges and having a semi-sharp tip. The blade has a raised fuller and is embedded into a handle fabricated from a 120 mm long piece of polished wood with a dark brown finish. The wooden handle is designed with a wide crossguard, narrowing at the mid-point and widens again at the pommel, the end of which is shaped like an elongated ellipse. This allows the user to maintain a strong grip on the jambiya. The end of the wooden handle where the blade enters the crossguard is rough in nature, yet the remainder of the handle features a very smooth finish. The end of the pommel exhibiting the head of a pin in the centre, that is designed to keep the blade in place, with two types of sealant applied around and over it. The jambiya measures approximately 67 mm wide x 470 mm in length. The accompanying sheath is fabricated from wood, composed of two facing hand-carved pieces, with a very light and thin framework, wrapped vertically in a single piece of leather with a black finished pebbled upper. It widens at the open end to form the throat and exhibits two raised bands around the circumference just below the throat. The two ends of the leather wrap are stitched together, with two strands of chain-link threading, which forms a long seam. It is completed by a 95 mm long metal finial, magnetic, consisting of a single piece of metal that is wrapped around the body of the sheath and is soldered together at the seam, which appears on the same side as the seam on the leather wrap. There are a series of Y-shaped impressions that are indented into the finial where it butts the leather-wrapped body, aiding in the securing of the finial to the body. The finial has been soldered at the end, creating a rounded look to complete it. The leather has experienced fragmentation, peeling and loss around the throat and along the outer edge, which exposes a large split between the two pieces of wood that form the framework of the sheath, with a piece of the wood missing on one side where the curvature becomes pronounced. The blade exhibits nicks and a small dent at the tip, along with scattered contact marks, pitting and surface wear throughout, with surface rust evident on the blade where it inserts into the handle, the sheath with cracking and wear present in the leather, along with the aforementioned issues regarding the wood frame and condition of the leather wrap from active use. As worn.