Interesting information on hallmarked silver Norman!
I agree Mark, this article really is well presented, and sort of steers toward probable reality from the 'Hollywood' versions of these times. I still remember as a young boy being fascinated with those same woodcut type prints of Lolonais, Blackbeard and others and those unmistakable scallop shell hilts. It seems I read somewhere that in the colloquial slang on vessels a cutlass or hanger was often termed a 'shell'.
I recall the great pirate illustrations by Wyeth and Pyle and the cutlasses with pronounced brass bowl hilt.......clearly Civil War naval cutlasses !! Other than that extreme gaff, the rest of the cliche' images were always exciting.
I think it is much like in all the historical settings we study, the actual weapons in use were seldom of any sort of uniformity, and often far from the colorful images of narratives and popular literature.
Still, it is exciting and fascinating to collect examples which just MIGHT have been used, and allow ourselves some degree of fanciful romanticism in thinking so.........otherwise all of this would lose its luster and adventure.
