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Old 19th May 2017, 01:14 PM   #8
Hotspur
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Nipmuc USA
Posts: 489
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My overall outlook is not that Mowbray and others since draw a parallel to the old floating pommels and those with backstraps but even his thoughts 30 years ago distinguish between the two types in the Ketland chapter, only later in the book bringing up a possibility.

If you peruse my eagle clipboard in the first reply you will see I break up the crested into orig&bck variants of crested pommels. In looking at the ketbck section of my clipboard linked in the second post, you will see a myriad of late attributes of the 30s and 40s using virtually the same pommel with bckstrp. Note in that folder several with 1803 guards and variants of that, along with a very few with old slotted type. Think about it.

If one then moves to the new testament, aka the Norm Flayderman&Stuart Mowbray book of the Medicus Collection, we are presented a more linear outlook with only confirmed origin when available. In the master folder of my first post, note a folder that is listed as Spies. A.W. Spies went to England after the 1812 war as an apprentice, returning to the US as an import retailer in New York City. If you look through both my Spies Folder and the ketbck folder you will see what I mean about the longevity of using up old blue&gilt blades well into the 1840s, still emblazoned with the word Warranted.

Moving on to a folder on my master clipboard is a folder listed as ketscrmng. These are the open mouth screaming eagles copying the 1830s Ames bird. Then the OrigKetFrm folder devoted mostly to the floating pommels of the Ketland chapter in the elder Mowbray's old testament.

So, long story short; Sure, attribute all crested eagles as having a Ketland origin but that is actually foolishness. I use Ket as a prefix in sorting but the realize the immense scope of variance and origin spanning the decades. It was but a single example marked Ketland that dubbed the old floating pommel as the origin but at the same time realize the casting was not by Ketland, who sourced shops throughout Birmingham. A random sword affixed to the Ketland story then spawning the widespread use of guilt by association.

So, we are reviewing the 1803 guarded eagle from several viewpoints but break down the components into the contexts of realities. Parts used up after the war and the development of the crested bckstrp variants. Note that the majority of those better fall into the 1820s regulations of langet type sabres and straight blades, with the bulk of those proving to be much later than the war of 1812.

Cheers

GC

My floater, of the original "Ketland" form
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