Outstanding Fernando!!! What a beautifully explained report on Portuguese swords of the Peninsular period, and valuable information to have here as there is extremely little published in English on these weapons. The photos are great too, and I have never seen one of those 'trigger' hilts (and I've seen many, many stirrup hilts from various countries!).
I really appreciate you taking the time to present this detail, and exactly the kind of informative posts I am hoping for here, that will serve as a standing resource for further research and collectors information.
As far as the weapon found in Angola, without some sort of documented provenance all we can assume is that it may have ended up there with a collector...I recall years ago a Hounslow hanger that was found in South Africa, and any number of cases of unusual occurrence of weapons in improbable locations. I suppose globalization has dramatically compounded the historical research on weapons!
All the best,
Jim
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