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Old 12th September 2020, 12:33 PM   #3
Jim McDougall
Arms Historian
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,719
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Wayne, thank you so much for responding! I can always count on you, and thank you for linking that apparently French slotted guard brass hilt of Revolutionary War period. Naturally the French were keenly involved as our allies so the presence of French weapons was quite notable.
There was a tremendous push for ersatz weaponry in which very much a remarkable spectrum of arms from many European countries was present.
This is why "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution" (Neumann, 1973) is such an important 'general' reference for all types of swords of this period.

I got this sword in London about 1978 (I think), and have always admired its profoundly aged appearance, old and solid. I must confess I am very much more historian than collector, so my perspectives of appearance and condition are quite different. One of the reasons I was able to find and acquire examples which were historically important is that they were in condition scoffed at by most collectors, and I could get them despite my meager budget.

For me, I knew that these pieces had not been tampered with, so the 'history' remained in situ without compromise.

What I liked most on this sword is that through the years I discovered how unique a style it was, and as noted, one of the earliest units of 'light dragoons' favored the style, which I believe was sort of a prototype of the four slot guard. I would presume this sword to have come from Birmingham in about late 1750s into 1760s, and German blades were prevalent then to the sword furbishers active. There were remarkably few British blade makers at this time so that was common practice.

While the appearance of my sword will not be changing, I am hoping to get my notes together to regain some of the material regarding the use of similar forms by the 15th Light Dragoons (it seems like Robson, 1975 might have had some).
In the meantime would really like to hear if anyone has seen similar examples of four slot guards with straight clipped point blades.
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