Germany, Heer. An Officer’s Dress Dagger, with Hanger

(Heer Offiziers-Dolch mit Gehänge). A well-preserved Heer Officer’s dress dagger, measuring 40 cm in total length when inserted into the scabbard. It features a 26 cm-long, nickel-plated, magnetic steel blade with a sharpened tip and edges. Unmarked, the blade sits securely within a nickel-plated alloy crossguard, the obverse of which bears a raised Wehrmacht eagle clutching a wreathed mobile swastika, with the seam covered by an intact black leather buffer pad. The handle grip is composed of a single piece of ribbed pale orange celluloid, and it completes with a flattened pommel bearing raised oak leaves around the outer circumference which screws in to maintain the dagger’s structural integrity. It is accompanied by its original pebbled nickel-plated alloy shaft. The upper third of the shaft has two integral oak leaf bands, each with a loop for the accommodation of a hanger. The throat retains a functional spring catch to firmly hold the dagger in place during storage. Issues consistent with age and wear are evident, and include spots of surface oxidation to the blade and some tarnishing of the nickel-plated fixtures. It remains in a near extremely fine condition.

Accompanying the dagger is a matching hanger, consisting of a gilded zink alloy loop with two additional loops attached to the bottom edge. Descending from the latter are field-grey doeskin straps topped by silver aluminum wire tresses, both adjusted with functional gilded zink alloy buckles. Each strap culminates in a functional gilded zink alloy spring clip to lock onto the scabbard’s loops. Moderate loss of finish is evident to the metal fixtures, but the hanger remains in a near extremely fine condition.