Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - A Scottish basket hilt sword with military marking

Jim McDougall · 1st March 2017, 06:12 AM

I deeply admire basket hilts, and this is an amazing example of what appears to be a garrison town product, probably Glasgow, for English cavalry, post Culloden c.1755.
It is important to clarify some things on British cavalry of the 18th c.
According to Dr. Mazansky ("British Basket Hilted Swords", 2005, p.94) and paraphrasing him, a horseman's hilt or cavalry hilt may or may not have an oval ring in the hilt. He notes that cavalry hilts are more heavily constructed than their Scottish infantry counterparts (Darling, 1974)*.
Quoting Mazansky, " ...thus since this group of swords has a variety of shapes and is primarily identified with regulation markings on the hilt, such markings are very rare, it does not warrant its separate typological section, it belongs to the large group of conventional hilts".

It is somewhat frustrating that virtually the primary way of identifying many of these cavalry basket hilts is by regimental markings, yet these are 'rare' and there is little compiled data on these. I recall communicating with Dr. Mazansky ( Sept. 1997) regarding various symbolic and markings matters, and he emphasized the typological theme of his proposed book, and that such 'other' matters were outside the scope of the study.

The past several days I have searched online, but found interesting help in "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution" (George Neumann, 1973) and "The British Basket Hilted Cavalry Sword" (1974, Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, Vol.7, #3).

I found no evidence of Roman numerals used in regimental equipment markings, however, the general convention and order of placing these seems as Neil has suggested. With most British weapons however it seems that these were configured as 'fractions' i.e. 9 /59 the top '9' the military group or unit; the lower the soldiers rack number.

There seems to be a great deal of inconsistency in these applications, in the use of letter, number etc.

In the British army of early 18th c. the basket hilt had been adopted for cavalry units in 1707 (Ffoulkes & Hopkinson, 1938),by both units of Horse and Dragoon Guards. By about 1750, the concept of dragoons dismounting and fighting on foot had ended.
In 1751, the 6th Dragoons became the title of the 3rd Irish dragoons.
In 1759, this regiment fought in the battles of Minden and Wetter in the Westphalian region of Prussia (England allied with Germany vs. French in the Seven Years War).

It seems that it may be possible this was a field marked sword of the 6th Dragoon Guards (why the Roman numerals unclear) and as noted 4th troop (cavalry were formed in troops) and sword #23.

This same regiment by 1765 was known as the carabineers, had an English four slot type guard with half basket and olive pommel and example in Darling (1974, fig, 11) had hilt marked A19 ( colonels troop A and rack number 19).

I think this may explain the period of this sword c. 1750, an English sword made most likely in Glasgow by Scottish armourer, and used by the 6th Dragoon Guards, with field markings as noted and possibly used in these campaigns in Seven Years War.

I would welcome the thoughts of others toward this theory of course, as these regimentally marked basket hilts are as noted by Mazansky, quite rarely found.

1st March 2017, 06:12 AM	#6
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,748	Speculation, but plausible I deeply admire basket hilts, and this is an amazing example of what appears to be a garrison town product, probably Glasgow, for English cavalry, post Culloden c.1755. It is important to clarify some things on British cavalry of the 18th c. According to Dr. Mazansky ("British Basket Hilted Swords", 2005, p.94) and paraphrasing him, a horseman's hilt or cavalry hilt may or may not have an oval ring in the hilt. He notes that cavalry hilts are more heavily constructed than their Scottish infantry counterparts (Darling, 1974)*. Quoting Mazansky, " ...thus since this group of swords has a variety of shapes and is primarily identified with regulation markings on the hilt, such markings are very rare, it does not warrant its separate typological section, it belongs to the large group of conventional hilts". It is somewhat frustrating that virtually the primary way of identifying many of these cavalry basket hilts is by regimental markings, yet these are 'rare' and there is little compiled data on these. I recall communicating with Dr. Mazansky ( Sept. 1997) regarding various symbolic and markings matters, and he emphasized the typological theme of his proposed book, and that such 'other' matters were outside the scope of the study. The past several days I have searched online, but found interesting help in "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution" (George Neumann, 1973) and "The British Basket Hilted Cavalry Sword" (1974, Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, Vol.7, #3). I found no evidence of Roman numerals used in regimental equipment markings, however, the general convention and order of placing these seems as Neil has suggested. With most British weapons however it seems that these were configured as 'fractions' i.e. 9 /59 the top '9' the military group or unit; the lower the soldiers rack number. There seems to be a great deal of inconsistency in these applications, in the use of letter, number etc. In the British army of early 18th c. the basket hilt had been adopted for cavalry units in 1707 (Ffoulkes & Hopkinson, 1938),by both units of Horse and Dragoon Guards. By about 1750, the concept of dragoons dismounting and fighting on foot had ended. In 1751, the 6th Dragoons became the title of the 3rd Irish dragoons. In 1759, this regiment fought in the battles of Minden and Wetter in the Westphalian region of Prussia (England allied with Germany vs. French in the Seven Years War). It seems that it may be possible this was a field marked sword of the 6th Dragoon Guards (why the Roman numerals unclear) and as noted 4th troop (cavalry were formed in troops) and sword #23. This same regiment by 1765 was known as the carabineers, had an English four slot type guard with half basket and olive pommel and example in Darling (1974, fig, 11) had hilt marked A19 ( colonels troop A and rack number 19). I think this may explain the period of this sword c. 1750, an English sword made most likely in Glasgow by Scottish armourer, and used by the 6th Dragoon Guards, with field markings as noted and possibly used in these campaigns in Seven Years War. I would welcome the thoughts of others toward this theory of course, as these regimentally marked basket hilts are as noted by Mazansky, quite rarely found.