Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Victrix
Damasco is French/Spanish/Portuguese for Damascus.
|
Well done!!! This fits perfectly into the climate in which this blade is from, late 18th century, and likely in France as I described earlier probably to one of these auxiliary support units.
In this period there was great attention to quality in blades as well as to more ethereal imbuement, thus the talismanic and magical themes often inscribed in motif.
The 'damascus' term may well coincide with terms such as used in England with their 'warranted, never to fail' etc. on their blades. There were cases of 'cast steel' wording being used on some blades, and in Germany the word 'Eisenhauer' (= iron cutting) was used in instances. It has been suggested, or pointed out, that the well known use of 'Andrea Ferara' on Solingen blades, while believed to be an Italian smith, coincidentally means true (or good, 'Andrew' patron saint of Scotland) steel (=ferara, iron).
The crescent moon, as discussed in other recent threads, may allude to the espadero del rey's in Spain, as well as perhaps other 'magical' connotations.
As Oliver has astutely noted, the hilt, convincingly fabricated using stag horn, is incongruent with other examples of these swords I am aware of.
While we are referring to hirshfanger style hilts often employed in these swords, I have seen many of these with extremely heavy, and often recurved in yataghan form, blades. These are clearly for military use, not for simply hunting use, but the 'hunting' style in hilts was very fashionable in the times for court and dress accoutrement swords used by gentry and those of high station.
Regardless of the composite of the hilt, this blade is fascinating and well represents this exotic and intriguing period of most colorful military history.