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Old 18th October 2020, 05:04 AM   #7
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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To add to the previous post on these distinctly 'English' hilts:
From "Scottish Swords from the Battlefield at Culloden", by Andrew Mowbray (1971) which is a summarized version of the very rare (1894) work written by Lord Archibald Campbell, who had acquired some 137 of the 192 swords collected on that battlefield in 1746.

p.11:
"...around 1740, Drury, Jeffries, Harvey and possibly others accepted contracts from the English government to produce swords of the Highland pattern. These smiths produced a cheap but quite serviceable basket hilted sword to arm Scottish regiments in English service along with certain Highland companies then being raised".
(these were a rough approximation of 'Glasgow' style and two of them were among the Culloden group).

"...This Birmingham sword of the 1740s was produced in considerable quantities, certainly enough to arm a few regiments, yet, paradoxically it is quite rare.
Many of this crude but most important and desirable type that have come down to us show evidences of fire or other rough treatment and it may be that the bulk of these swords suffered just such a common fate while iin storage in some arsenal or castle following their obsolescence as tactical fighting weapons for Highland troops".

It would seem that, as noted in this reference some years ago by a most esteemed collector and author gives us some key perspective on how this sword might have come to being remounted as in its present state.

This 'rarity' of certain pattern swords with several models occurred in the 19th century due to fire, one in the Tower of London armouries (I think it was the M1829 heavy cavalry troopers sword).
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