Absolutely a marvelous piece, Norman! I particularly like the 'S'-patterned braces. These types are a little rarer than the standard baskets with the three saltires. It appears your basket did have a wrist guard at one time (the quillon that extends from the basket), but broke off, which is a very common occurrence. In this case, that would date the basket to post-1700, as this feature was added to deflect the dreaded wrist slash common in Scottish fencing. An amazing survivor from the Jacobite period!
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