I am adding to this rather old thread as I have been doing some research on this type of sword due to a briqet/sabre/cutlass I acquired. I originally thought it might be an infantry NCO sword. It has a blade that is 26 and 1/4th inches long and over 1 3/8 inches wide at forte. It has a two finger wide fuller on both sides. I feel that it is a late 18th early 19th century blade. Wonderful look and balance. Great blade! The whole sword is covered in a lacquer that could have either been put on by the museum that owned it (there is a cursive numbering on the forte in white ink that suggests a museum) or perhaps by naval personnel if I ascribe to the idea that this sword was for a ships armoury. I have left the lacquer on at this point. The hilt poses some questions for me. It has no markings on it at all, however the grip has 28 ribs as the French ones do. I compared it to my 1816 briquet and there are differences in dimensions and weight. The 1816 has a larger and heavier hilt. I have posted some pics. One pic is my new briquet/sabre by itself. The other pics are the hilts of both for comparison. The 1816 pattern is on the right in both pics. Perhaps this pattern on my new one will be familiar to someone. I'd like to know what date/nationality the hilt might be from or is they have seen this hilt/blade configuration before and in what context. Worse case scenario is the hilt is "modern" but I'm not sure how to tell.....P.S. I'm a different Morgan than the one on the prior post.
