19th century fencing foils

[katana]

Hi Broadaxe,
thank you ...yes I did notice one of the labels stating 'paire epees du duel ' but because of the cup hilt, longer handle etc. I did not think it was necessarily applicable to mine. I had wondered whether Duelling rapiers may be partly catergorised by the cup hilt etc ( mentioned above ) ...now I know that it is not necessarily so.

Hi William,
thank you for your time in trying to ID the blade marks...very kind of you . There is very little regarding fencing during the 18th C / 19th C on the web, in English anyway. I might start 'googling' ('McDougalling' Hi Jim ) using French and or German ... (I can see Babelfish getting a lot of use soon )

The tang of the blade appears to be 'peened' over......whether the pommel is threaded and the tang peened to secure it (prevent it turning) is unclear. What is clear is the fact that pommel and tang were 'mated' sometime ago .All the fittings are nice and tight so it is impossible to gain any more information.....without damage that is The steel in the 'pommel' picture is in fact quite dark with stablised rust, lighting gives the appearance of newer metal.

Kind Regards David
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