Spanish ?? I.D. Help Needed

[M ELEY]

[QUOTE=celtan]
Sadly, no smallsword I have seen so far shows an identical guard . OTOH, it is similarly shaped to the Spanish M1720, although smaller.

These shell guards are more common on Spanish colonial bilbo types in the New World. We see them on that Brazilian cutlass we've discussed before, complete with striations. Maybe not an identical guard on a smallsword, per say, but bilobate guards on smallswords are encountered. Beautiful piece, BTW. Screams nautical/pirate/Caribbean-

Here's the old link with the Brazilian shell cutlass-
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=pirate+swords