Germany, Heer. An Officer’s Dagger, with Hanger, by Carl Eickhorn

(Heer Offiziersdolch mit Gehänge). A Heer Officer’s dagger, measuring 40 cm in total length when inserted into the scabbard. It features a 26.5 cm-long, nickel-plated, magnetic steel blade with a sharpened tip and edges. The blade is plain with the exception of a maker’s mark on the reverse ricasso of “ORIGINAL EICKHORN, SOLINGEN”, circumscribing the firm’s classic logo of a squirrel clutching a sword. The blade sits securely within a silvered metal alloy upper 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 light brown celluloid. It completes with a rounded and flattened pommel which bears raised oak leaves around the outer circumference, screwing in to maintain the dagger’s structural integrity. It is accompanied by a period scabbard, constructed of a pebbled and nickel-plated non-magnetic metal shaft. The upper third of the shaft features two integral oak leaf bands, each retaining a loop for the accommodation of a hanger. The latter is included and consists of two field-grey doeskin straps topped by silver aluminum wire tresses. Each strap descends from an aluminum loop, adjusts with functional buckles, and completes with a functional spring clip to lock onto the scabbard’s loops. The set demonstrates numerous issues consistent with age and wear, including loss of finish to the metal fixtures, likely replacement of the handle grip with an ill-fitting substitute with consequent loosening of the dagger’s structure, denting and distortion of the scabbard, and material fatigue throughout the hanger. The dagger is in an overall fair condition.