Quote:
|
Originally Posted by celtan
Thank you for your time and kind words, Jim. This spadroon is not mine, I found the images last wednesday while perusing through a well known auction site looking for similar blades.
You comment on the round tip is interesting. Was this practice normal or frequent among european armies using this type of blade?
Best
M
|
Not at all Manolo! It was nice of you to post these, as they show an interesting aspect of swords in the period at the end of the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. As far as the rounded tip on the extremely parabolic sabre blade, actually that was not common for sabres, especially French.
The Napoleonic French light cavalry sabres had points, and what was distinct about French cavalry is that they were ordered to 'give point' in many instances. That is in attacking the sabre was held in high tierce and thrusting downward movement, if my understanding of the manuever is correct. It is well established that these thrusting wounds were nearly always fatal, and the argument for many years was thrust was superior to the cut for that reason.
The ultimate goal was a sword blade which accomplished both in equal degree. The French heavy cavalry chausseurs of course had straight swords for thrusting, but not as effective in cuts as the sabre.
The British 'spadroon' type hilt you have shown with the unusually curved M1796 light cavalry type blade, has the distinct 'hatchet point' of these 1796 patterns. The M1796 heavy cavalry disc hilt had similar hatchet type point,which indicates a blade tip which radiuses around with wide cutting edge. It is interesting that the Royal Scots Greys as they left England for Belgium just before Waterloo, were ordered to grind down thier blades to a spear point, illustrating once again the concerns for cut vs. thrust.
The hatchet point blades on the British M1796 light cavalry sabres were altogether too effective at cutting, and created such gore and mayhem that they were declared 'barbaric' weapons by Napoleon himself. These blades became long lived in the theater in India when they became favored by native cavalry units and tribal warriors, for thier profound cutting abilities. While the regulation British swords 'advanced' to pointed tips in 1829, these hatchet point types were produced for Indian regiments until the early 20th century.
I think much of the excitement in regulation swords is focused around the M1796 period and the early 19th century. I recall an article written by a friend in Denmark on the M1796 light cavalry sabres, which revealed as many as half dozen or more variations. Some were yeomanry, while many were interpretations by various vendors, and in this time the colonels supplied thier units, so between these factors, there was a spectrum of variations not seen in any other regulation pattern in this degree.
Best regards,
Jim