Basket hilted swords

[Jim McDougall]

This is an outstanding example, and Cathey I would like to say again how grateful I am that you are posting such magnificent examples of these basket hilts here!! Since these have been a true passion of mine since very young, it means a lot to see them and to have the opportunity to learn from them. There has been little written on them for many years, and I look forward to the Baron of Earshall's work. The fact that he has been working on it for so many years is testament to his keen attention to detail and accuracy, and I am sure it will be a monumental work for generations of collectors and scholars to come.

I wanted to add some notes regarding the blade and inscription, but placed it on a new thread so as not to detract from attention to the hilt work.
It is established that most writers on these hilts deliberately avoided attention to the blades on these swords to keep focus on the hilts, which are truly a complex enough subject alone, so I wanted to follow that course and avoid duplicating my previous faux pas.

I hope those interested in notes on this or other pertaining to the blades on basket hilted swords will visit the other thread as well. Thank you.

[cornelistromp]

it is unfortunate that this thread is a kind of controlled/guided and the debate is limited.

Any discussion about toureg blades in basket hilts, the different moon marks and about a subsequent 19th-century? dating of a Wallace related patriotic etching is interesting and should not be smothered but actually be discussed here without "censorship".

it is only one opinion, please see it as constructive criticism because it is a wonderful thread.

best,

[Jim McDougall]

I would like to thank you guys for the input, and would add here that I am fully in accord with your views......here each weapon should be observed and discussed openly and with unrestricted discourse on all aspects.
My thinking was admittedly toward early writers on Scottish swords such as Whitelaw who noted he had deliberately avoided attention to blades on these as they were virtually all imported. Obviously a book on Scottish arms makers would be less than well served discussing German blades.

However, here we are observing and examining wonderful examples of these incarnations of the melding of trade and vintage blades and wonderfully fashioned hilts and to learn from the stories these components in union can share with us.

With that I am going to reintegrate the other thread into this one, where it might be in proper union in the same manner, and fully open to discussion.
While I can understand how certain subtopics can become distracting, I am confident participants here can successfully maintain proportion in the overall discussion.

Thank you very much guys!

[Cathey]

Dear Jim

My understanding is the Ethnographic Weapons forum exists to deal in detail with weapons such as African broadswords, kaskara and takouba etc, unless I am mistaken this is the European Armoury.

When I started this thread in January 2009, it proved very hard to keep going as I had hoped it would be devoted to the Basket hilted swords and draw out like minded enthusiasts. Thanks to Eljay’s contributions, for the first time I feel encouraged that it might actually take off. If someone visits the thread expecting to see basket hilts and get drowned in debate over African blades I am concerned that they will just move on and I suspect we will lose the opportunity to see what else is out there in the world of Basket hilted swords.



Regards Cathey

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Cathey,
Let me clarify what I was trying to say here. I do understand the 'debate' on African swords was becoming somewhat distracting as obviously an African made blade has nothing to do with discussion on Scottish basket hilts, that is 'technically'. However the crux of the points toward the kaskara blade were whether the moons were European (i.e. German, the primary provider of blades for Scottish hilts) or indeed 'African'. The reason that was important was in determining the congruence of this blade with the hilt.

While somewhat digressive, it was in degree relevant to the discussion. However, I did agree that the discussion was becoming more complex on the moons, notably a distinct anomaly on blades occurring with Scottish hilts, so I moved to a new thread accordingly.

When it came to the '1515' blade, my objective was to avoid another digression to 'blade discussion', however my thinking in that respect was completely misguided, as well pointed out by Ibrahiim and Jasper, and I'm sure you agree, these swords should be discussed comprehensively on all aspects.

Therefore, my suggestion was to return my attention to the '1515' blade to this thread, and eliminate the other thread on blades on Scottish swords....the one on the 'moons' remains as separate as per originally intended.

Indeed, this forum is intended to field discussions on European arms and armour, however on occasional the ethnographic field can of course become somewhat entwined due to colonial and trade circumstances. In my opinion discussions should not be so fragile as not to allow a sometimes broader spectrum of subject matter to be introduced as required. I do agree that these topics should remain incidental and not take over the original subject of discussion, as became the case with the moons and kaskara blade.

I sincerely apologize to you and the forum for this unintended interruption on this valuable thread, and hope we might continue this outstanding review of these most important Scottish swords......and their blades, together

The posts from the 'other' thread are joined here as posts #94 and #95.

Thank you again Cathy for this thread, and for your understanding.

All very best regards,
Jim

[S.Workman]

Well, I am an amateur on these swords and know little technically about them but they are some beautiful blades. That's pretty much the sum of my "input".

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by S.Workman

Well, I am an amateur on these swords and know little technically about them but they are some beautiful blades. That's pretty much the sum of my "input".

The whole idea here is to learn from these weapons, which we are all doing together, so no such thing as an amateur....especially when one has the courage to step forward and make an entry regardless of status.
Thank you so much!

Very much agreed, the blades are intriguing, and offer us much toward learning more on the history of each sword as a whole.

On that note, I would ask more on a question Cathey directed to Eljay (post #89) concerning the Samuel Harvey mark often seen on British dragoon blades, in many cases initials SH in the running wolf.
It seems that at some point the 'S' was dropped and the 'H' stood alone on the 'wolf' (fox as termed in England).


I tried to find what I could on the Birmingham swordsmith Samuel Harvey, which apparently was the name of Samuel Sr. (b.1698) ; junior, and his son the third. Senior died in 1778; junior in 1795 and grandson in 1810.
Since all three had the same name , that would not be the cause of the omission of the S.

It would seem that there were a number of variations in marks, in that a slotted hilt (c.1780) had a crown over H/vey....some were marked S.Harvey with no fox.....some cavalry blades were inscribed Harvey and one example (I think in Neumann) has a fox with only the H, dating from 1750-68.

Does anyone have more data on variations of Harvey stamps?
While on many types of swords, some of the British dragoon basket hilts had Harvey blades......any examples?