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Old 1st January 2019, 02:21 PM   #4
fernando
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Location: Portugal
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I appreciate your openness, Fabrice. Let me however dissect your attribution to the term 'reproduction'.
As well recognized in the thread i submitted, my sword is a "sabre à la Mameluke", not an Egyptian Mameluke shamshir.
So instead of calling it a reproduction i would prefer to label it as a 'genuine' French sabre in an oriental style, so called Mameluke, as it comes in the books.
I do not have the knowledge to judge on your nice example; whether it is a genuine specimen from the Imperial Guard or a basic Eastern Mameluke with a slightly curved European blade i am not able to promptly question, but i am well aware that the price of one is a good couple times more expensive than the other.
I am also surprised with your strict definition of how these swords are suspended. After several searches i see the system of two rings positioned along the scabbard everywhere and, so far, not one with the rings opposite to each other, like in your Saif ... or mine, as shown. But again, i like the knowledge.
Curiously in the painting by Jean-Léon Gérômethe that you show in your initial post, that officer holds a typically curved Mameluke saber with longitudinal rings.
And so does Ismaël, painted by Lassigny in 1805 in which caption one can read how he considered the traditional "Mameluke style to suspend the sabre"; longitudinal rings with the sword turned upside down ... a detail that intrigued me while i was rehearsing a display for my example; which kept turning down on its stand, due its major weight residing in the hilt ... until i saw Ismaël's portrait.

Bonne année .

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Last edited by fernando; 1st January 2019 at 03:31 PM.
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