Court Sword; may be William 4th?

[Iliad]

Good Morning/Evening
Herewith pics of what I think may be a William 4th Court Sword. The spaghetti-like insignia is indecipherable to me! Question: What was the purpose of a Court Sword? The blade is not particularly substantial, but quite sharp, and with a very sharp point. A poke in the stomach with this would really make one's eyes water! Could duels be fought with these? Memo to Gavin:This is NOT 1970's Spanish!
Brian
PS
Members of my fan club (both of you) should check out the Keris Forum as I have put a post on that.
B

[M ELEY]

Hello Iliad,
To briefly answer your question, most court swords came from the continually evolving smallswords of roughly the same period. Smallswords were, of course, a step down from their predecessor, the rapier. Court swords were basically a symbol of rank and prestege, like the smallsword, BUT typically served no defensive functions as some of the smallswords could (smallswords in the late 18th/early 19th century were almost exclusively for showing one's station in life). Yours appears to bear the cursive marking for GR, or George Rex. The symbol used in this styling was for George III and IV of England, meaning roughly from the period 1760's-1820's. I'm guessing based on the simple folded over guard type on this specimen, yours is probably post 1820's, when court swords were really coming into vogue. Very nice and authentic piece!

[M ELEY]

Hmmm...when looking at the markings again, you might be correct that this is marked WR, for William the 4th, as you stated. Sometimes those cursive letters just irritate the h### out of me trying to decipher! Had an old basket hilted sword with a later blade with one of these indecipherable cursive marks. To this day, I'm not sure if it was marked WR (William), VR (Victoria Regina) or ER (Edward the 4th)...

[Jim McDougall]

Beautifully described on court swords Mark!! This I agree is of early 19th century and those ligature type cyphers are indeed maddening!!! To me they're like trying to unravel my extension cords...auughh!
This is especially nice having the royal cypher on the guard, and I believe is William the IV, who reigned only until Queen Victoria in 1837.
Prosser is an extremely desirable maker who produced high quality swords for officers and high ranking officials as seen here.

All the best,
Jim