Description

An unusual Chinese trousse set. The knife has a hollow ground blade with a strong ricasso, the unsharpened portion at the base, something uncommon in China but more often seen further West, especially in India. The grip is made of buffalo horn, of octagonal cross-section. It is fitted with a brass ferrule and copper pommel plate. The knife's tang is not peened at the pommel, as is usually the case.

The scabbard is made of a wooden plate with on top large bone and buffalo horn plates. The bone plates are very finely carved with swastikas, traditional Chinese cloud head shapes and a center panel with Tibetan-style scrollwork. The top of the scabbard is reinforced with binding in a recess, the lower binding has been lost.

It comes with two short bone chopsticks, one of which has a broken tip.

Attribution

Many design elements point towards Western China, the border regions with Tibet. I would attribute it to the general area of western Sichuan, primarily Jinchuan, based on the general outline of the scabbard and its decoration.

See for example, a fine Jinchuan sword I sold back in 2017: