17thC Sword, maybe?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Norman McCormick

Hi Jim and Fernando ,
Many thanks for your comments. A few further points, the Turks Head is made from individual strands, see photo, the crud of ages is giving the illusion of a homogeneous casting. The decoration on the blade and hilt all appears to be hand chiseled. As far as condition goes it does seem pretty good but I think we always need to be cautious re condition as some items do survive in very good order and although wear and tear can be a good indicator of age it is not a given. If indeed it proves to be a 19thC piece, which it may very well be, someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make a sharp flexible sword with very good handling characteristics and not a 'brick on a stick' as someone to aptly described a lot of the Victorian wall hangers.
Thanks again for your interest.
My Regards,
Norman.

P.S. My Elmar lens seems to be adding a little enhancement to the images. It's a bit muckier than the photographs would suggest. I also gave it a good wipe down with an oily rag to remove the surface muck.

We crossed posts Norman, Ive been working all morning on finding examples etc. That is really good news on the Turks heads! Actually the thought of restoration has crossed my mind, and the peened pommel is one reason, these hilts were characteristically with capstan and not peened.
As noted, this curious pastiche of elements in the hilt motif is what makes me think of the very neo classic Victorian period. With this type of blade, it makes me think of blades in that period, in which this might be even a dueling epee made in classic forms.
While decoratively there are elements of concern, I don't doubt this is a fully usable sword.

For some reason I always think of English nobles and gentry, who leaned heavily on pretension and classicism, and the ever mysterious fiber of the Freemasons, where swords were a key icon and fixture. These guys often had swords 'customized' and would likely have regarded a 'dueling epee' with magical inscriptions de riguer much as a case of dueling pistols.

I was thinking of the 'muck' you noted all over this, could that have been cosmoline, a gel like stuff often put on items in old collections as a preservative.