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Old 17th October 2022, 04:38 PM   #13
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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Found the pics, "African Arms and Armor" Christopher Spring, 1993, British Museum (plate 24) ,
The upper gurade is with the M1796 type cavalry blade as previously noted.
Below is what appears a complete anomaly, it is a M1796 British stirrup hilt but with the M1821 light cavalry blade, entirely in original mounts.

Both are with local Abyssinian scabbards with vertical handle at tip, as shown in the 'Berber' example previous.

When the British M1821 three bar hilt saber for light cavalry was introduced, in the transitional period, many of the troopers preferred the heavy hatchet tip blade and a number of them had the new hilt on old blades.
Perhaps this was a case of the old stirrup hilt preferred (there were issues with the new hilts being restrictive etc.)
The bigger question, how did what was clearly a quite early example of the British light cavalry saber end up in Ethiopia before the later colonial impacts?

Next (op.cit. plate 24) is an Abyssinian court official wearing shotel c.1845.
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