I really didn't mean to open a can of worms, but once I got to thinking about the very significance of private purchase, which leaves open many possibilities for any type of officer finding these swords attractive, I began to wonder about naval use. Yes, I am a naval collector, but it was never my intention to steer this sword down that path. It is an incredible piece of history regardless of how you look at it. Perhaps I'm daft for pointing this out, but here goes-
Naval officers of the time period 1780-1810 frequently purchased their own type of swords depending on what they liked. There were no standard patterns back then or rules as to what a sword had to be. That being said, here is a composite of the typical things seen on private purchase officer's swords of the time-
#1- Solid brass hilts- These were extremely popular with navalmen due to brass being rust-resistant to salt air. Note this same metal was valued in British and French naval swords for the same reasons.
#2. 4 sloted-hilt swords- Very well documented in Annis and May, Gilkerson (who dedicated multiple pages and pics of same hilt type) sword. Neumann likewise.
#3. Single-edged sabers among naval officer's swords (note 'saber' being the curved type vs 'sword' which strangely referred to the straight cutlass-type blades of the more common seaman's sword) was very common.
#4. The lion hilt. Multiple examples of lion hilt naval swords pictured in the above volumes, in brass none-the-less. Jone Paul Jones sword was a lion hilt.
#5. The ribbed grip. Whether it be the classic m1803, the Baltimore cutlass, the French boarding sabers, etc, the solid ribbed grip was the way to go with naval swords. Most of the ones I mention were in iron, however, brass examples were known to exist, especially in French examples.
As a matter of fact, the only things saying that a sword such as this isn't naval can likewise be attacked. One is the lack of any naval adornment, such as an anchor motiff or somesuch. Many, if not most, private purchase swords that were made for a general audience lacked such specifics and well-documented naval officer's swords from past conflicts with no markings are known. The only other weak point to be made is the blade length. At 32", it is not a typical naval length. This can be shot down by the fact that many officer's type swords had longer blades vs the more common hunting hanger types with shorter blades. In 'Boarders Away', pg 117 ex D, we see an officer's sword with 31" blade. In P.G. Annis book "Naval Swords", we see multiple Brit naval presentation swords with 30+" blades.
Even beyond all this, in May's monumental naval volumes 'Swords for Sea Service', vol.1 & 2, he directly points to naval officers who purposely chose to buy cavalry-type officer's swords for themselves based on their taste. Swords of this type with naval attribution can be found in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
I stumbled over an officer's saber in Gilkerson's book. Pg 123, #16 is a pic of an American made eagle head made in Philadelphia for a naval officer ca. 1797-1803. Mowbray likewise ID'ed this sword as such. The hilt is ribbed, but as the pic is only a drawing, it doesn't say if it is brass. The eagle is of the primitive Prahl type. Is it just a coincidence that as the brass lion hilt faded into the sunset, it was replaced by the federal eagles,
many of which were on naval swords?
Wow, I seem to have presented a treatise for challenge here, but as a naval collector, the possiblity of even a slight chance of naval usage makes this sword even more precious to me. And now, I open myself up to cannonfire-
