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This sgian dubh has a roe deer stag antler handle which is capped with an engraved silver disc showing a pierced heart and ‘THUS FAR’, the crest and motto for Campbell. The lower mount is plain. The steel blade has a scalloped back edge and single fuller which is engraved ‘FRASER, FERGUSSON & MACBEAN, INVERNESS’. The leather covered wooden scabbard has twin plain silver shield-shaped mounts and the reverse of the handle and scabbard have been marked ‘F.F&M’, a ‘camel’ [for Inverness], and ‘INVS’.
Alexander William Fraser is recorded in an advert in the Strathspey News & Grantown Supplement during July 1907, as a ‘Designer and Manufacturer of Highland Jewellery’. He appears to have had two businesses, one at Grantown on Spey called ‘Fraser’s Highland Jewellery Establishment’, the other in Inverness called ‘Fraser, Fergusson & MacBean’. Presumably, Fraser purchased the already established Inverness business of Fergusson & MacBean. A biography can be found in in Highland Gold & Silversmiths by G.P. Moss and A.D. Roe.
Condition:
Due to the age of the item, the original steel blade shows natural toning and discoloration. There are three small dents on the silver disc with the crest and motto, together with a little patination.
Dimensions:
Blade length 8.1cm
Overall length 18cm
Maximum width 3cm