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Originally Posted by not2sharp
Marc,
Thanks for the input. Have you other FAB Toledo presentations pieces like this? It would be interesting to see some other work by this particular artist ( whomever E.^o Z. was)
n2s
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I might also have an answer to this question... Having taken a closer look to the pics (I must say the first intervention was done a bit on the fly) I have to say that this one is anything but "typical" (Sorry, Tom.
). First of all, variations of the same pattern were issued to various corps, but given the shape of the pommel, I would say that this is a presentation version of the Artillery Machete M1843.
Anyway, the details of whom or why it was commisioned for are probably hidden among the decoration. No garantees, of course, but in any event better pictures of all the inscriptions (like those in the ricasso) could help in this regard.
By the way, chances are that this work comes from the workshop of Eusebio Zuloaga (hence the Eº / Z), the most famous of the Spanish damasceners, who lived between 1808 and 1898 and the last man who held the Title of
Arcabucero Real ("Royal Arquebussier"). It doesn't necessarily has to be from his hands, as he personally tended to sign with his full surname, but... well, it could be. Of course, to be sure, or to discard a good imitation, a closer inspection would be needed.
Nice find, I must say. Very, very nice.
By the way, Tom, here's another "special one" for you...
Courtesy of the soon-to-be-disbanded Army Museum in Madrid. You can't imagine how much many of us will miss it...
This one is from Eusebio Zuloaga himself, a present from Queen Isabel II of Spain to Ramón María de Narváez, Duke of Valencia, in 1848. I know it's not an style one could call discreet, but it was period fashion...