The purpose of this post is to make it easier for prospective buyers to distinguish between model variants. A sort of buying annex restoration guide.
I do not claim to be an expert in matters conserning sabres, but with the help of observations done during conservation work on my small collection of M1822 and the invaluable expertise of Mr. l'Hoste, gleaned from his book ,, Les Sabres'', it should be possible to bring together many interesting bits of info in one place.
Anyone wanting to buy an M1822 should be able to make an informed decision, most certainly because prices went up quite a bit over the last two years.
Introduction.
The M1822 model was made over a period of 115 years. The last production year was 1937, when the Polish Army ordered replacements for the many M1822 they had bought during the Polish - Russian war of 1919 - 1921. They removed the two secondary branches though, like they did in 1919.
During the long production run small changes were made, mostly cosmetic. The ricasso changed over time. Horn replaced the first generation leather over wood grips and the scabbards had their second ring removed. The horn grips have some variations too.
After 1880 some of the grips show a flat side. A straight bladed version was issued in 1882. The hilts themselves became smaller, with thinner branches and the secondary branches joined together in another way, as can be seen in the following pictures:
M1822/82 Trooper.
And here with an M1883 Dragoon Officers: (Notice the reddish copper look of the M1822 Artillery type hilt.)
Note that these changes were mostly for Officers sabres. There can be a general trend observed though, that later sabres, after the war of 1870, were of slighter build, following the customs of German / British Officers with triple wired, shagreen grips and a German / British style of etching.
Also, the demise of the sabre as the weapon of choice during conflict gave way to all kinds of dandyfied models.
The Officers had the leeway to order privately, under one restriction: All blades of whatever design should be ordered from the official armourers.
This was done to prohibit the use of inferior blades as a cause for many accidents in the past.
The official armourers were Klingenthal, Chatellerault and to a lesser extend, St. Etienne. St. Etienne made guns and gun related work mostly, but at times blades were forged there. The Inspectors at these facilities in turn had the right to sell a certain number of blades per year made for their account to sell to Officers privately.
For St. Etienne the number was 10 items per year per Inspector. For Klingenthal and Chatellerauld I do not have the numbers, but it is safe to say they too could sell 10 blades per year to supplement their salaries. I will show a Klingenthal blade made for the account of Joseph Ambroise Bisch, Inspector from 1809 to March 1829. I stumbled upon an article about the Bisch family by the way and will give the link in the notes.
The hilt - blade combo was then put together by firms like the famous Manceaux of Paris, though there were many more regional firms all over France. These will show the cutler mark under the guard mostly, but sometimes also on the ricasso.
In the notes I will give a good source on all French makers and cutlers.
The Officers blades may carry official marks on the spine, like: ,,Manufacture Royal de Klingenthal off. Cav. Leg. M1822 Mars 1823'', but not all blades were marked this way. Also the poincons are not always evident. As they say: ,,This is France, rules are for Germans''.
Though most people would be very pleased to be able to acquire a standard issue M1822, the fun for me are the deviants. The outliers I have and will show here, are by no means the only ones around. There must be many more interesting configurations out there. Further more, old hilts had their decorations in part removed after regime change, got new blades and grips, grip wire was changed with the fashion, but also replaced by dealers and collectors. Blades were re polished and so the counter polish on the ricasso removed if it was there originally. Even when polished away, remnants of it may be detected and the blade restored to its original state.
The Brits made a version of the M1822 for the Egyptian Army and the Germans looted cart loads of M1822 after the war of 1870. Some wound up , shortened, as blades for their Artillery sabre, as can be seen here:
Though I have only 9 examples to offer as of this date, I think the story of the M1822 is rather well reflected in what I have to show. I downloaded some missing models from the internet and I will mark those as such.
In short, there is a lot to see and I hope that this attempt at a guide may be of some use.
The M1822 Troopers.
It was on 18 January 1822 that the Comity of the Artillery decided that all Cavalry should use the new sabre.
It was issued not only to the Light Cavalry, but also to the Mounted Artillery units.
The Artillery found the M1822 sabre not satisfactory, so they got a new model in 1829.
The M1822 was also issued to the Mounted Gendarmerie, the Lancers, the Chasseurs d'Afrique in 1831, the Spahis in 1841, the Sapeurs de Genie in 1845, to the students at the l'Ecole Royale de Cavalery and to the Guides d'Etat Majeur in 1848.
During the Second Empire the M1822 was issued to the Garde Imperiale, the Guides in 1853, the Genie in 1854, the Train d'Equipages in 1855, the Gendarmerie in 1855 and again, in 1855, to the Mounted and Foot Artillery.
The Chasseurs a Cheval got theirs in 1896.
Only the Cuirassiers, the Carabiniers and the Dragoons had a model of their own.
There was one blade length: 92 cm and all regulation blades had a flat spine.
Blade width was 3,1 cm and the bend was 3,8 cm, with the large fuller running almost up to the guard. This last bit about the fuller is important. Over time this changes and can be a way to determine the period of production when the marks on the spine and/or the poincons are polished away.
Here you can see the different configurations.
From left to right: A. up untill 1850, B. before 1860 ( Here you can also see the tang is slightly more straight) and lastly: C. after 1860.
The major supplier was Klingenthal. Later on Chatellerault joined the fray. The last Chatellerault blade was made in 1904.
The ricasso on mine is of version B, from before 1860.
The picture is not very clear about that, but this is not the flat plate like in version C.
Chatellerault blade dated 1843.
And lastly the leather covered wood grip and the wire.
This standard French grip wire was in use since at least the First Empire.
The closest we have is the modern 0.8 mm brass wire, for sale at Home Depot or Arts and Crafts shops everywhere.
Repairing the grip with new wire is fairly easy, but keep in mind to reproduce the worn look as seen here. That look can be achieved by lightly tapping the wire with a small hammer, so as to flatten it a bit. Also a good rubbing with a dirt and wax mix will take off the shine and fill in the space between the turns. The turns should be 6-7 per cm. In the near future I hope to do a thread about small restorations to wire and grips and how to make a good wire the easy way.
M1822 Officers LC model in partial war paint.
About the ,,War paint''.
A former owner partially succeeded in removing the highly appreciated war camouflage from the hilt and had given up half way on removing said patination from in between the ring holders on the scabbard.
There the patination was sanded away revealing naked steel, mixed with streaks of brown. The poor guy did not know what he was up against.
I had to remove the small bits left of it on the hilt and decided to restore the scabbard. So, down it went into a bucket filled with ,,Eau d'Ulahn'' and after soaking for a week it came out like you see it now.
This ,,Eau du Regiment'' war paint or camouflage is the best, hardest and most durable I have ever encountered. I have thrown everything I got against it, ranging from vinegar (removes gun blue in 5 minutes) to battery acid, acetone and alcohol, ammonia, chloride and last but not least, drain cleaner. You can jump up and down all you want, but nothing will work on this beautiful patina.
Anyway, here it is in its full glory.
This is one of the first regulated Officers patterns.
The hilt was gilded. The peen block, with the domed peen on top, had a two level support before 1840, boarded with guirlandes of laurel leaves.
The connection with the knuckle bow is chiseled with a rosette and small acanthus leaves.
The two secondary branches are decorated at their base with palmettes under a half Fleur de lys form 1822 and after 1831, when the Second Republic took over, with acanthus leaves.
As will be shown, the decoration on the guard suffered also from these changes.
The original decoration was made up from a 7 branched palmette mounted by a half Fleur de Lys, as shown here.
After 1831 the decoration changed to the 7 branched palmette mounted with 2 acanthus leaves between 2 rosettes and after 1841 the decoration wass changed again as the 2 acanthus leaves were arranged with 4 sub equal lobes.
According to the orders of 20 September 1820, blades were to be made at Klingenthal. After the creation of Chatellerault this order was not longer respected and one will find blades of either maker, marked as such. What also can be found on the spine is the mark S.A. which stands for Soie en Acier.
First generation ricasso with the counter polish restored.
Notice how the poincons were polished out somewhat. One is C, the other is gone.
Standard leather over wood grip with standard wire.
The first generation guard decoration.
The is no date on the spine, just ,,Couleaux Freres''.
The Couleaux brothers operated from 1812 to 1825, so the sabre can be dated to the period of 1822-1825.
First generation M1822 Officers LC. Private order.
Sorry for the white rag.
This is a deviant.
There are no marks on the double fuller blade, nor on the standard hilt.
The blade is not of the best quality. The ricasso is poorly finished and there are some forging faults in the blade that look like cracks, but are from not hammering out the steel enough.
Since the faults are hard to see and this blade is quite over the top, I had to have it.
Here is another reason this sabre is interesting.
The guard decoration was ajusted to Second Republic regulations, while the decorations at the base of the secondairy branches were left intact.
It looks like the poor guy woke up in the Second Republic one morning and ordered the gardener to remove the Fleur de Lys from the guard.
The space there is all bumpy. Not a professional job.
But I have to thank the gardener, because dating is easy now.
Ooops! He forgot this.
The beautiful domed peen. Klingenthal I'd say. Maybe one of the sabres made for the account of one of the inspectors to sell to Officers privately.
Horn grip with fancy wire.
First Generation M1822 LC ,,Ecole Militaire de Saint Cyr''.
Presented to those students at the famous school who made the course for ,,Sous Lieutenants dans le corps d'Etat Major et la Cavalery'', from 1822-1830. On the blade, at one side is engraved ,, DONNE PAR LE ROY''.
Manceaux had the contract and the sabres were marked as such under the guard, while the scabbards carried that mark just under the scabbard mouth.
Mine misses the scabbard and the wire, but any standard scabbard will fit. This is the standard M1822 personified.
Since these sabres were mostly taken good care off, this is a splendid opportunity to study the original polish. Handy when polishing neglected French blades.
The guard decoration with the Fleur de Lys intact.
Also intact.
Leather over wood grip with the wire missing.
I did not have time yet to restore it.
A Third Republic M1822 Officers LC. Private order.
The scabbard has one ring, as per decree of 1882.
The fuller has a non regulation start. This must be a private order.
The decoration of the guard is of the second stage.
The decoration of base of the secondary branches has no half Fleur de Lys.
Yup. Private order.
The horn grip with amateur wiring.
The spine is marked ,,Couleaux et Cie Klingenthal'', which gives a date of between 1871 and 1874 for this sabre.
Try-out pallash for the troopers of the light Cavalry.
Trails result into the ,,Sabre de Cavalerie modele M1822/82''.
The darn thing would not stay up the other way around.
The M1822/82 came in 3 blade lengths:
95 cm for the Cavalerie de Reserve, aka the Cuirassiers,
92,5 cm for the Dragoons and
87 cm for the Cavalerie Legere.
The types with a 95 cm blade and the 92,5 blade were never issued. The blades were considered too fragile.
The Light Cavalry wanted a pallash and because the delivery of the M1882 was delayed, it was decided in 1883 to re forge the regular M1822 into pallash form, but with a shorter blade, from 92 cm to 87 cm and call it the M1883. This reforging proved fatal. The blades could not support this treatment and there were no more than 3000 of this type produced.
So, we have an M1822/82 troopers and an M1822/82 Officers with a blade length of 87 cm out of this mess.
Both types are identical, in looks, with my pallash, which is build much heavier in the blade and the scabbard, though the trooper version does not have the gilding and decorations of course. Also the hilt is of the old M1854, while many of the M1822/82 have the new, lighter hilts.
Every part has inspection marks, here it is an S, aside from the weapon number. Weapon numbers, here 743, are as far as I have seen on other examples, always in the low numbers. The highest I saw was 1224. This pallash is still a fighting weapon. The resulting M1822/82 has none of these qualities and feels more like a Degen.
Leather over wood grip with the standard wire.
The spine is marked ,,Manufacture de Chatellerault Mai 1880 Cavalerie Legere.
M1822 General de Brigade sabre with a Preval blade.
Now, this is something else.
This type of blade is seen, here and there, on the M1896, a design directly lifted from the work of General Preval, back in 1831.
The type, which is in essence a larger version of the regular smallsword blade, can also be found on M1882 Infantry Officers sabres.
The blade is quite heavy and very stiff. A great big needle. Though I think part of the blade could be sharpened, its function is stabbing. Why the type never was considered for the Heavy Cavalry, who were stabbing oriented and carried the pallash to the bitter end, is anyones guess. Anyway, here it is hilted with the M1822 LC hilt and the blade and scabbard are nickel plated.
The three sided blade with the mark ,, Julius Guilleaume'' partially covered by the washer.
The hollow ground back with the mark of the cutler and/or forge: O. Mauxa & Cie.
Horn grip with remnants of black lacquer. The wire is quite thin.
The decoration on the guard with the two silver plated stars.
The hilt itself is of lighter build than before, with a small plateau and slender branches. It is typical of the hilts after 1880.
To show you the difference, here are some pictures with the old and new hilts,grips and pommel caps side by side.
As you can see the old parts are to the left. The old grip had the top sawn off, but you get the picture I hope.
The old grips had the wire running under the pommel cap, the new ones have this smooth bit there, more in the German / British style.
What is also new is that suddenly the bronze mix was changed. The old style hilts were made of the famous ALCO, a French bronze variant that is very strong and of a light silver/yellow colour. Around 1880 copper coloured hilts are a la mode. One of those you can see above. What is also important to notice is that the pommel cap on the old hilts have two levels or rings under the dome. The new ones have only one.
The decoration at the base of the branches.
The nice dome peen.
Mounted Artillery Officers sabre M1822.
The gilded hilt is identic to that of the LC.
The decoration on the guard though is different: acanthus leaves in the form of a square over a palmette made up of 7 leaves.
From 1914 on this sabre was issued to the Officers of the Chasseurs and the Hussards, Chasseurs d'Afrique, the Algerian Spahis, auxiliairies of the medics for the mounted troops, Officers Interpretors, Functionairies of the Military Telegraph units, Officers for cavalry instruction, Officers of the cadre of the Cavalry of the Ecole Speciale Militare and some more Ecoles.
The gest is clear: everybody and his uncle got one.
Though the sabre depicted here was a private order, it is still pretty standard.
The ricasso with vice marks, but there are no poincons. Also evident is the crack at the side of the guard. A foundry fault.
This is better. The mark on the spine reads: ,,Creuze, Proa et Cie a Chatellerault.
These chaps were active in the period 1835 - 1851.
The horn grip with standard wire.
The typical Artillery decoration on the guard.
The decoration at the base of the secondary branches lost the half Fleur de Lys, so is to be dated after 1830.
The sabre can be dated between 1835 and 1851.
Mounted Artillery Officers sabre M1822. Private order.
Nothing standard here. This gentleman prefered the Artillery M1829 blade, so he had that stuck on his M1822 Artillery hilt.
The mark on the round and thin spine is not very clear anymore. It was polished to near death.
It reads: ,,Bisch a.....v..Klingenthal. Since there are no poincons, this is all we got to go on.
This Mr. Bisch, we find, was Joseph Ambroise Bisch and he worked at Klingenthal from 1809 to 11 March 1829. This is also the year the famous M1829 was issued to the troops. It seems our gentleman was an early adaptor and bought this light version of the M1829 blade from Mr. Bisch, who had it made for his private account.
The horn grip with standard wire.
The guard decoration.
And the decoration on the base of the branches.
These are from after 1830. So, the hilt of this sabre dates from at least the Second Republic and the blade is slightly younger. It is reasonable to say then that the sabre dates from around 1830.
So ends this post on the M1822 and ends the famous M1822 line, spanning 115 years, with the horrible hybrid M1882 LC, with some pictures of Preval designs and the adapted version of the M1822/82 LC.
Though I have shown the try out version of the M1822/82 LC, the outcome of the trails resulted in a sabre that was much lighter than the trail version, with a weak blade to booth. It is missing from my collection, as it is not something I would like to pay good money for. For now a picture must do.
In the notes I will post some links and access to a very nice PDF file from Oldswords about the M1822.
I hope you will find this little essay to be of use to you.
Cheers.
M1822/82 Officers LC.
M1822/82 Troopers LC.
An M1822 hilted Preval from before 1880.
The design for the Officers Preval.
The design for the Troopers Preval.
A Preval of 1831 design, dated 1832 and made by Manceaux.
Redesigned by Backes around 1900.
Notes:
French marks Klingenthal:
www.klingenthal.fr/presentation_marquages.htmHistory of Chatellerault:
users.skynet.be/euro-swords/chatellerault.htmThe Bisch tribe:
www.klingenthal.fr/ouvriers/bisch.htmList of workers and inspectors at Klingenthal, very interesting:
www.klingenthal.fr/ouvriers/Napoleonic swords and sabres:
swordscollection.blogspot.nl/2012/02/french-officer-light-cavalry-1822.htmlSwordsandPistols:
www.swordsandpistols.co.uk/swords_gallery/index.php?page=list-album&pageNum=3Skynet:
users.skynet.be/euro-swords/Bancal1822net.htmAn article about Klingenthal:
www.musees.strasbourg.eu/index.php?page=France-AllemagneReference works: Les Sabres portes par l'armee Francaise. By Jean l'Hoste and Patrick Rezek - Editions du Portail.
Armes Blanches . By Jean l'Hoste and Jean-Jacques Buigne. Editions du Portail.
And: German Swords and Swordmakers. By Richard H. Bezdek. Paladin Press. This last one because Solingen blades do pop up here and there, as you can see when you scroll down the page or go here:
sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/44034/m1816-french-officers-sabre-photosTo download the Oldswords PDF file on the M1822 by N. Vasse, click on the following link:
www.oldswords.com/articles/FRENCH%20LIGHT%20CAVALRY%20SWORD%201822%20MODEL%20-%20A%20classical%20Taste.pdfThis is very much worth it. Cheers.
