Creative Commons License
Dagger and Scabbard
This dagger and scabbard were created by Adalbert Volck, likely for William T. or Henry Walters. Volck came to Baltimore from his native Germany in 1850 and became a leading dentist in the city as well as an important promoter and supporter of the arts in the region. He is probably best known today for his sympathies to the Confederate South in the Civil War and his subsequent promotion of the idea of the Lost Cause, which he sometimes furthered through his art.
Volck began working with silver and other metals in the 1880s. He drew upon upon ancient Egyptian art in creating the dagger, which features representations of Isis and Osiris on either side of the handle, pharoughs heads on either side of the end of the hilt, as well as a dung or scarab beetle on the sheath.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
William T. or Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; by bequest to the Walters Art Museum, 1931.
Exhibitions
| 1978 | Adalbert Volck. Health Sciences Library, University of Maryland, Baltimore. |
Geographies
USA, Maryland, Baltimore (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Overall: 11 in. (27.9 cm)
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
57.1222