Thank you so much for your extremely interesting coments, Gentlemen.
Manolo, the spine is flat. The only engraving i can see on it is a little efect on the forte section, more looking like a floral decor than a graphic mark ... unfortunately.
I have taken new pictures of the engravings, but the results were not such a success.
There are five decoration parts in both faces. One at the forte, partly hidden by the langets, composed of florals supported by semi circumferencial lines; next to it an isolated branch, followed by the main (martial) motif. The next is flower; finally a little narrow crosswise efect, of cursive type.
I still think this blade had (has) some dark finish to it, with the decoration in some whitish contrast.
I see Jim's point in that some of the martial efects in both faces may be lances ... eventualy with pennons. But aren't these, together with flags, drums and cannons, a mix that probably only pretend to be an allusion to the military theme in general?
Also i find well placed Richard's impression in that this must be a Solingen blade, as also accepted by Jim.
A private purchase, most certainly.
But then we have this riddle with the hilt; it does indeed lack the usual presumption of a sword to be used in parade or cerimonies by a General Officer. Also in Portugal these hilts were available for General officers, from which i have pictures of entire swords, as also loose hilt examples in one of my books.
It would then have probably belonged to a mid rank officer, definitely for use in combat. Also to consider that Generals had swords of plainer version to go on the field; would this be plausible?
Equally worthy of note is that Wellington, the person who highly influenced the fashion of Mameluke sabres in Europe, has been in Portugal between 1809 and 1814, in charge of the Anglo-Portuguese forces, during the Peninsular War.
I would also emphasize that the grip plates in these hilts are usualy held in place by the lanyard eyelet in the back end and their prolongation to beneath the upper langets in the front, the grip buttons being only for fantasy. In the case of this sword, not only the plates penetrate into the langets, as also the buttons are actual rather strong screws; even admiting that such screws were a later adiction ... still a symptom of this sword use in battle.
Once again thank you for your precious input. May i however, consider this an open thread, with a strong desire to soon find more about the identity of this sword.
Fernando
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