Spanish Cavalry or British Engineer?

[midelburgo]

I do not know much from the 1857 Engineers pattern (just what comes in Brian Robson book, page 235) but I am developing some theories on the Spanish Cavalry Officers swords in XIXth century. And the example above fits some of them.

The cavalry officers did not have a fixed by decree model. Better not to talk of the 1820s. In the 1830s they oscilated between a brass perforated shell and a hilt with three branches after French models. These are usually called the 1832 patterns. Line cavalry sported straight blades and light cavalry saber blades. Artillery officers, also without a regulation adopted the three branches hilt, but with highly curved blades.

In the 1840s, almost all the Spanish cavalry officers would use the brass perforated shells, that differed in the design and density between the manufacturers. The three branched hilt continued being used by the artillery officers. In the 1860 blades with a minimum of curvature were made so it became unclear if they were intended for line cavalry or light cavalry.

This is a 1850 sword, presumably for the light cavalry. I have seen them from the 1830s. They appear with dates up to 1876. This is the most common type of blade geometry for these swords, but there are at least 4 other possibilities from Toledo (and many others from outside Toledo).