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Frontiersman Stag & Silver Fighting Knife c. 1840

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:350.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Frontiersman Stag & Silver Fighting Knife c. 1840
Advertising, Firearms, Antiques, Collectibles, Antique Furniture, Native American Artifacts, Navajo Jewelry, Silver, Gold, Montana History Artifacts, Navajo Indian Rugs, Taxidermy Mounts, Navajo Old Pawn Jewelry, Turquoise Jewelry, Old Western, Bits & Spurs, Chaps, Early American, Native American Indian Weapons, Native American Indian Beadwork from the Sioux, Crow, Blackfoot, Blackfeet, Iroquois, Chippewa, Comanche, Kiowa, Salish, Nez Perce, Seneca, Great Lakes, Eastern Woodlands, Northern Plain
The lot features an excellent authentic original stag handled heavy cast steel Frontier Fighting Knife dating to circa 1830-1840. The knife features a cast forged “bowie” knife blade that is marked, “WILSON CAST STEEL”. The knife would have been used by an early American Frontiersman or Indian fighter during the early days of the Westward Expansion of the United States. By 1840, nearly 7 million Americans (40 percent of the nation’s population) lived in the trans-Appalachian West. In 1845, a journalist named John O’Sullivan put a name to the idea that helped pull many pioneers toward the western frontier. Westward migration was an essential part of the republican project, he argued, and it was Americans’ “manifest destiny,” to carry the “great experiment of liberty” to the edge of the continent: to “overspread and to possess the whole of the [land] which Providence has given us,” O’Sullivan wrote. The survival of American freedom depended on it. The knife sold in this lot would have seen a tumultuous history from countless skirmishes with various Indian tribes along the journey West to the ruthless outlaws who stood to gain from the Frontiersman’s misfortune. The knife shows a heavy cast steel construction blade being 9 ¾” L and ¼” thick at the spine, a reinforced spear point, and German silver guard and grip cap. Toping of the piece is an original Stag or Elk Antler grip showing the appropriate rich dark aged patina indicative of its early age. The historic piece has an excellent appearance and an impressive 14” L overall size.