Smallswords, why the terms pillow and mourning swords?

[Dmitry]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Aylward also mentions on p.54 there was a strict convention for wearing of black in mid 18th century, with some cheaper blades and blackened steel hilts for expressing grief....it is noted that these were not necessarily just for mourning. It makes sense that a sword just for mourning would be a bit extravagant, unless there were really a lot of funerals!!

As I see it, an 18th century gentleman of means[or debts] had several small-swords for different occasions, which, in today's parlance, might be equated to a closet rack of ties. Some of us have only one or two, some have 20+.

I, too, would be interested in seeing a 'bonified' mourning sword. Again, let's not forget that japanning was a preferred method of protecting steel from rusting, often applied to military swords and long-arms.

This, according to the Mount Vernon Museum, was George Washington's mourning sword. It does have a black grip [very uncommon to see a bone or ebony grips on small-swords, aside from some French martial examples], but the rest of the hilt is actually pretty festive, and reminiscent of the French model 1767 officer's swords.
http://emuseum.mountvernon.org/code/...rrentrecord=86

[M ELEY]

I've noticed in some of the old artworks of sea captains that blackened steel 'japanned' smallswords were popular. At first, I wrote this off as perhaps nothing more than a "prop" given to the subject being painted for artistic purposes, but Annis comments that smallswords were indeed popular among the maritime folks. I was wondering aloud if the blackened steel was more rust-resistant, as other naval swords that were painted or tarred black. Here's a sea captain (with an interesting history) whose pic is in the National Maritime Museum. Note the blackened hilt. Click on his pic for a bigger view.

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/exp...cfm?ID=BHC2928

[Jim McDougall]

Good points about the 'japanning' method of protection on hilts. Actually the use of brass on naval hilts was of course suggested as being favored for its rust resistance, but then the steel guards of the cutlasses would seem to have had to be japanned black.

It is known that the Scots actually either russeted (brown) their basket hilts or japanned them, so that the images of glistening basket hilts seems a bit unlikely. The damp Scottish weather was certainly a challenge for steel.

I would imagine that sea service hilts as Mark notes may well have been blackened, as these were of course more exposed to the elements. While military swords may often have been russeted or blackened, the civilian swords such as the regular smallswords or these 'walking or town swords' thier predecessors, may not have typically been so modified. It would seem the exception would have been the mourning swords discussed, and for these somber purposes.
It would be hard to be sure though, as there were certain styles, especially oriental which came into fashion in the 'shakudo' type hilts of 18th century smallswords with black overall and dramatic gold or ornate motif. While these were 'dark' in appearance they were of course not somber, but the attraction for the darker effect can be seen.

All the best,
Jim

[Dmitry]

This is what a japanned small-sword hilt looks like. It's a French sergeants hanger from the mid-1700s.
No officer or otherwise a person of means would have a sword like this, as Jim writes, the darkened appearance of the hilt was done by other, way more expensive means than the asphaltum-based paint [i.e. japanning] - blueing and russeting.