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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Hi Miguel,
First of all, thank you for the kind words in your earlier post, I am most grateful.
To clarify, in the discussion linked, the Wilkinson Sword Co. among others were suppliers to the British colonies in India, most of the others were either subordinate to or contracted to Wilkinson.
The design of the tulwar (Indo-Persian) hilt was of course a development from iconographic Indian hilt forms actually from more ancient times, which evolved at a yet distinctly undetermined period. The progression was quite subtle, and reached its more familiar form probably around the 16th c.
In the British Raj, there were an ever increasing number of native units in the British army, and supplying them was a huge undertaking. By the second half of the 19th century, while variations of regulation British military patterns prevailed, many units were allowed to choose their own favored types. Naturally the 'tulwar' was highly selected.
Actually Wilkinson and the Mole company, a subcontractor, produced both British patterns as well as the Indian style tulwar hilts. I once had brass tulwar hilted examples marked MOLE.
With the military style sabres produced (known as the Paget style) these had blades in either 31" or 33" lengths. I cannot recall details but these were apportioned to different districts, Bengal and Madras. There were numbers of other variations in Wilkinson records.
Meanwhile, in earlier East India Company times (pre 1857), there are numbers of Indian hilted (both khanda and tulwar) swords mounted with British military blades. These are hybrids from either captured or discarded British swords and in some cases the whims of flamboyant British officers in some of these native units, with any number of probabilities.
These practices and situations prevailed throughout the Raj.
In most cases the British blades are marked, while various European imported blades may or may not be marked. Solingen in the later years of the century had numbers of producers who produced volumes of 'blanks' for export to various markets.
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Hello Jim,
Thank you for the very interesting info on the Wilkinson Sword Co but I think your first reply had the answers. Ibrahim provide a link showing Dungapuri hilts which you had referred to and I have at last found a sword with a blade having the same shape and disposition of fullers as on the Tulwar
Unfortunately I do not have the dimensions of this sword which is a circa 1730 / 1740 Austrian sabre for Grenadiers of Cuirassier and Dragoon regiments This is not to far away from your thoughts about likening it to possibly an 18th century Hungarian Hussar`s sabre, both part of the Hapsburg empire and may well have been used by other countries within it. Having said that I am still unaware of the name of the Company, probably German, but not definite, who made them. In case you are interested the title of the book that I found this in is " The Encyclopedia of European Historical Weapons" by Dr Vladimir Dolinek and Dr Jan Durdik published in GB in 1993.
Thank you again for your input which is always much appreciated.
Regards
Miguel
Miguel