Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Philip · 21st April 2017, 07:38 AM

A similarly garbed figure on a horse seems to have been a stock figure on engraved saber blades of the 17th-18th cent. which have come down to us in Eastern European and Asiatic hilts. There are minor differences in costume, but the steed is generally rearing up and the horseman typically has a tall hat, some sort of cape, and is holding a saber.

I have two examples in my collection, one a mid-17th cent. Polish saber ex- armory of the Princes zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck with no "vivat..." banner over the cavalier but with 4 patriotic and religious mottoes in Latin in lieu of this, and the other a Russian one with similar imagery, inscribed "Tula" (in Cyrillic letters) on one side and "1778" on the other, this latter one in a Qianlong- or Jiaqing-era Chinese hilt and scabbard.

Prof. E. G. Astvatsturyan, in ORUZHIYE NARODOV KAVKAZA (armament of the Caucasian peoples), St Petersburg 2004, illustrates several examples (figs. 38-40; 43) recorded on shashka blades. One of them has a "Vivat Hussar" banner inscribed over the figure, the author identifies the blade as coming off of an 18th cent. Prussian regulation saber. The others are believed to be Solingen export blades, or native Caucasian copies, on these examples, the horseman is accompanied by the mottoes "Pro Deo et Patria" or a garbled version of "In te, Domini speravi non confundar in aeternum".

The most interesting appearance of one of these blades is an extremely rare example of a European blade in Japanese hilt and scabbard, with the outward appearance of a katana when sheathed. In the National Museum in Copenhagen, it is believed to have been fitted-up late in the 17th or early 18th cent. and is ex-King Frederick VII collection, transferred to museum 1864. The familiar horseman is augmented by several Latin inscriptions positioned above and below (as on my Polish saber), these with numerous misspellings and losses (due to corrosion and wear). The sword has been written up in an article by Per Terje Norheim, "Et Euro-Japansk Sverd i Nationalmuseet i Kobenhavn", VAABENHISTORISKE AARBOGER XVI, pp 163-73. Interestingly enough, the author makes reference to yet another European blade in Japanese dress, this one exhibited in London and Oxford in the 1960s, this one inscribed "me fecit solingen 1633" (but no mention made of the horseman iconography.)

Bottom line is, that figure of a cavalryman had quite a cachet in its day, a lot like the Marlborough cowboy in our time!

21st April 2017, 07:38 AM	#11
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	common motif on regulation and trade blades alike A similarly garbed figure on a horse seems to have been a stock figure on engraved saber blades of the 17th-18th cent. which have come down to us in Eastern European and Asiatic hilts. There are minor differences in costume, but the steed is generally rearing up and the horseman typically has a tall hat, some sort of cape, and is holding a saber. I have two examples in my collection, one a mid-17th cent. Polish saber ex- armory of the Princes zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck with no "vivat..." banner over the cavalier but with 4 patriotic and religious mottoes in Latin in lieu of this, and the other a Russian one with similar imagery, inscribed "Tula" (in Cyrillic letters) on one side and "1778" on the other, this latter one in a Qianlong- or Jiaqing-era Chinese hilt and scabbard. Prof. E. G. Astvatsturyan, in ORUZHIYE NARODOV KAVKAZA (armament of the Caucasian peoples), St Petersburg 2004, illustrates several examples (figs. 38-40; 43) recorded on shashka blades. One of them has a "Vivat Hussar" banner inscribed over the figure, the author identifies the blade as coming off of an 18th cent. Prussian regulation saber. The others are believed to be Solingen export blades, or native Caucasian copies, on these examples, the horseman is accompanied by the mottoes "Pro Deo et Patria" or a garbled version of "In te, Domini speravi non confundar in aeternum". The most interesting appearance of one of these blades is an extremely rare example of a European blade in Japanese hilt and scabbard, with the outward appearance of a katana when sheathed. In the National Museum in Copenhagen, it is believed to have been fitted-up late in the 17th or early 18th cent. and is ex-King Frederick VII collection, transferred to museum 1864. The familiar horseman is augmented by several Latin inscriptions positioned above and below (as on my Polish saber), these with numerous misspellings and losses (due to corrosion and wear). The sword has been written up in an article by Per Terje Norheim, "Et Euro-Japansk Sverd i Nationalmuseet i Kobenhavn", VAABENHISTORISKE AARBOGER XVI, pp 163-73. Interestingly enough, the author makes reference to yet another European blade in Japanese dress, this one exhibited in London and Oxford in the 1960s, this one inscribed "me fecit solingen 1633" (but no mention made of the horseman iconography.) Bottom line is, that figure of a cavalryman had quite a cachet in its day, a lot like the Marlborough cowboy in our time!