Mameluke type British sabre.

[daggpil]

Hello again,

Today this thing arrived in my collection. The entire blade is etched including the back/spine and I assume that the blade also have had some type of guilding or bluening. Now polished off unfortunatly.

What age could it be? My guess is 1830-1850.

Best regards/Ulrik Sjöberg

[ulfberth]

The period is indeed between 1830 to 1850, but the origin is Belgian and probably made in Liege. It has all the features type, shape decoration as a typical Belgian officer mameluke sabre of that period.
kind regards
Ulfberth

[Jim McDougall]

The period is indeed between 1830 to 1850, but the origin is Belgian and probably made in Liege. It has all the features type, shape decoration as a typical Belgian officer mameluke sabre of that period.
kind regards
Ulfberth

Well observed and excellent suggestion. I knew this was not the British version of the 'mameluke' saber which became popular after the campaigns in Egypt (1798-1800). Both Great Britain and France became enamored of the sabers of the Mamluk forces in Egypt and adopted the Ottoman hilt design through the first quarter 19th c.
In 1831, the British officially adopted the hilt style for officers dress sabers, but it had been well in use already as well as in Europe.

This hilt does not have the rivets, decorated crossguard and langets, and the British sword does not have a chain guard which this one seems to have had.
The clipped point and deep curve is also inconsistent with the British and seems a lot like German blades using that feature mid 18th c. into 19th.
In Seifert "Schwert Degen Sabel" (1962), he refers to this type point as a 'pandour point' referring to the notorious Balkan forces in Austrian service for Maria Theresa and were widely imitated in European armies of early 19th c.