- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Plug-bayonet.
- Long description
- Plug-bayonet, inscribed 'NO ME SAQUES SIN RASON' on one side and 'NO ME EMBAINES SIN HONOR' on the other, with horn plug. For sheath see 1884.28.32.2. Short broad sharp 2-edged blade, slightly hollowed in centre, each side steel guard, slightly tapered plug with ball terminal. Incised designs around inscription include floral motifs and musical instruments. [LM 03/04/2007]
- Geographical reference
- Cultural groups
- Spanish
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Date / Period
- Date made: 1600-1700?, uncertain
- Date collected
- ?By 1874
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1884
- Materials and processes
- Material Metal, Material Steel Metal, Material Animal Horn, Process Inscribed, Process Hollowed, Process Forged (Metal), Process Incised
- Dimensions
- Length: max 360 mm, Width: max 73 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1884.28.32.1 PR Cat other PR nos: 1227
- Research and responses
The following notes are drawn from research compiled by Andy Mills as part of the DCF Cutting Edge Project 2006-2007. This is very functional bayonet and knife, of Spanish origin, as revealed by the inscription on the blade fuller. It reads, one clause on each side: NO ME SAQUES SIN RASON. NO ME EMBAIENES SIN HONOR – ‘Do not draw me without reason; do not sheathe me without honour’. This was a common Spanish motto for the inscription of blades, as is reflected by the same inscription occurring on a Spanish sword blade of the 1770s in the Wallace Collection (see Catalogue of the European Arms & Armour in the Wallace Collection at Hertford House by G.F. Laking, published 1910. p.71, Catalogue No. 259a). In terms of context, what we can recognise here is the perpetuation into early modern times of the chivalric code, reflecting the importance of personal honour, and the just implementation of violence to maintaining it. In this sense, we see something of the concern for honour reflected by the Greek knife, and the Moroccan koummya. This example bears similar Rococo chasery on the blade to 1884.28.35, although there is not so much a scene, rather an ornamental arrangement of trumpets, flags and foliate vine scrolls. Here, one might read this as a symbolic allusion to the glories of the martial lifestyle and its pomp, rather than a religious theme. [SM 12/05/2008]
Note: the idea that a blade may not be re-sheathed without honour may be revisited in the Gurkha code of honour which demands that once the knife (kukri) is withdrawn, it may not be re-sheathed without letting blood. If necessary, the Gurkha will draw his own blood to fulfill this dictum. See object 1886.1.33 for example of a kukri [HA 11/11/2009]
- Associated publications
- C ffoulkes. 1912. 'European Arms and Armour in the University of Oxford' Clarendon Press, Oxford. p38 '49 Plug bayonet of the XVII cent. The haft is of ebony the quillons are of steel. The blade 12 in x 1 1/2 in is double-edged with a shallow groove. The groove is engraved 'NO ME SAQVES SIN RASON' on the other side 'NO ME EMBAIN Z SIN HONOR' (Draw me not without reason, sheathe me now without honour). This motto is frequently found on Spanish swords of the seventeenth century. This weapon is featured in Demmin's 'Guide des Amateurs d'Armes' and in Meyrick and Skelton's 'Illustrations of Ancient Armour' cxv 7 Pitt Rivers coll 1227 (Meyrick coll)' [illustration] . [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998] This weapon is described and illustrated in A. Demmin's 'An Illustrated History of Arms and Armour' (London, 1877) on page 449, figure no 5 as a "Spanish wooden-handled knife-bayonet, seventeenth century. It bears the inscription: 'No me saches sin rason, Ne me embainez sin honor' (Unsheath me not without reason, nor sheath me without honour.) Meyrick Collection" [HA 11/11/2009]
Search terms: Firearm Weapon, Writing, Bayonet, Inscription, Firearm Accessory, Sheath