Artwork Page for Left-Handed Dagger or "Main Gauche"

Details / Information for Left-Handed Dagger or "Main Gauche"

Left-Handed Dagger or "Main Gauche"

c. 1650

Spain or Italy, Naples

Medium
steel, pierced and chiseled
Support
Pierced and chiseled
Measurements
Overall: 57.2 cm (22 1/2 in.); Blade: 44.4 cm (17 1/2 in.); Quillions: 25.4 cm (10 in.)
Weight: 520 g (1.15 lbs.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance 1916.699
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

The main-gauche (French for "left hand") was used mainly to assist in defense by parrying enemy thrusts, while the dominant hand wielded a rapier.

Description

For parrying, rapiers were often made with accompanying daggers as a matched set, although the rapier shown here (1916.1810) does not originally belong to this dagger. Daggers such as this one have been misleadingly called "left-handed daggers" even though they could be held in either hand. The guard is richly decorated with chiseled and pierced arabesques, an ornamental design consisting of intertwined flowing lines.

Left-Handed Dagger or "Main Gauche"

c. 1650

Spain or Italy, Naples

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