Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
This is a completely fascinating example!!!! and while the British hanger blade is sort of right in areas I have been researching some time, the analysis of these mounts is deeply intriguing. While I know little of these SE Asian dha's, I have always been interested in the key nuances used to identify them.
The British were of course strongly present throughout India, and it does seem they had presence in some of the SE Asian countries, but there I cannot speak further.
The mark on the blade is as Iain notes, what is known as the 'bushy tail fox', which has been attributed to Samuel Harvey of Birmingham, who worked c. 1750s. These 'foxes' have been the subject of considerable debate and investigation as to their relationship to the 'running wolf' of Passau and the Shotley Bridge sword firm.
The blade was most probably from an infantry hanger of British forces in the 18th century, these blades so marked were present in British swords up to the 1770s-80s. What is surprising is that they are hardly ever seen in the mounts of ethnographic weapons.
On the other hand, the hanger blades of the VOC, Dutch East India Co. seem to be profoundly present on many varied forms, most prevalent the Ceylonese kastane.
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Thanks for joining in Jim, I agree with you of course but perhaps I can add a little more detail around these hangers in British service... In the course of researching this sword and writing up a little article I did a bit of digging around their service (or curious in same ways a lack thereof!) as well as potential use in British India.
If I can indulge in a quote from said article rather than rewriting it:
The blade is that of a mid-18th century hanger, manufactured in Birmingham by Samuel Harvey. The blade is marked with a fox and the remains of an 'H' can be still seen inside; this is typical for these blades which combined the fox with S.H. in many cases. This form of hanger is perhaps best known from the 1751 pattern but was predated by a 1740 pattern and was generally in vogue throughout the 1740s-1760s. It was phased out of use before the Napoleonic wars. In earlier periods it was a general issue to privates but later was more typical among grenadiers and sergeants.
The next question of course becomes how this blade ended up in the environs where dha like swords are found, which immediately points to the regions of eastern India or Burma. Hangers of this type were part of the equipment of the European regiments of the East India Company as well as with regular British Army troops in the mid-18th century in India. Before the formation of regular European East India Company regiments like the Bengal European Regiment (later 101st Foot), there were also independent companies of Europeans within the service of the Company. All these elements give a foundation of hangers of this type and age having a presence not only in India but specifically in Bengal where the British Empire and Company territories were already in contact with the Burmese Konbaung dynasty, who would eventually expend directly in Assam and other abutting territories.
Cutting out some junks of dry history regarding Burma...
As with any blade that turns up in mounts that are not original and difficult to precisely date when it may have reached its current form but it seems reasonable to assume, given the age of the hanger and the period when it was in service, that at the latest it may have been converted into a dha during the first Anglo-Burmese war and more probably before that since this form of hanger would not have been a common sidearm for British troops, either in regular service or in the Company regiments, Indian sepoys carried tulwars rather than European style swords. Intriguingly, issued swords such as these hangers apparently were notorious for going missing in regimental use. C. ffoulkes and E. C. Hopkinson in THE SWORDS OF THE BRITISH ARMY (Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research) note inspection reports such as 1767 were inspections of 8 regiments found only 151 swords in total. A clear disregard for the regulations regarding equipment for the time. Since regiments purchased swords through ‘off-reckonings’ in essence the funds left over after food and board for men, this equipment was not centrally controlled in terms of issuance.
We have a situation then where a hanger of this type would have been found in use in British India at a time when swords were becoming outdated among a musket and bayonet driven mode of warfare. It is not hard to imagine a multitude of scenarios in which a hanger then goes missing and ends of traded on. Of course it could equality have been found in the hands of the numerous traders, adventurers and mercenaries engaged in commerce in India and Burma as well.
Of course that's all simply an exercise in a bit of history and deductive reasoning. But enjoyable none the less.