A Schleswig - Holstein Mounted Artillery Sabre 1848 - 51.
Mar 25, 2017 18:40:35 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Mar 25, 2017 18:40:35 GMT
Cavalry battle before Arhus, the 31 of May 1849. The Prussian Cavalry was, like the rest of the Prussian Army, in bad shape for a while already, so it gets soundly clobbered by the Danes.
There are those moments in a collectors life that every decision is dominated by intuition.
So it was here. I saw this sabre advertised as ,, European Cavalry sabre, probably German or Austrian ''. ( Which means the seller did not really know what he was selling at a, therefore and lucky for me, heavily reduced price ). I did not know either. It was my gut feeling that told me to do it. Its condition was not too bad and the two ringed scabbard dated it to before 1870. I like those old school scabbards. I searched the Oldsword's database, but that was of no help, so I turned to www.deutsches-blankwaffenforum.de/index.php?s=f29d9b2ab2989ff6dc549e93a5404b18 and plowed through all the sections. It turned out my gut feeling was right. Under ,, Schleswig - Holstein I found it and what is more, I came to understand the sabre I bought is a rare specimen of an untouched Mounted Artillery sabre: It still has its original blade length of 89 cm.
Per German Imperial regulations of 1902, all Mounted Artillery sabres were to be shortened to a blade length of 82 cm. So, this one is just as rare as an uncut Prussian M1848 Artillery sabre with its original two ringed scabbard. The second reason for it to be rare is that it has no regimental or unit designation stamps. One can say: Fresh from the press.The third reason it is super rare is that it survived Danish tinkering. Here we have to delve a bit into German - Danish history. This will be better explained in the notes below, but for now it must suffice to say that during the Danish - Schleswig war of 1848 - 51, the Danes captured a Schleswig armoury and took all of the 1259 brand new Schleswig Mounted Artillery sabres back home. Probably the goings on during the war were so confusing that there was no official model designation yet, as they always are referred to as 1848 - 51, not M1848. The Danes brought their loot home and stored them. Or should I say ,, forgot about them? ''. Whatever was the case, it took until 1869 for them to introduce the Schleswig Mounted Artillery sabres as the Danish M1869 Mounted Artillery and Cavalry sabre. After a few modifications of course. They cut off the leather finger strap but left the remainder of it under the ferrule. There are examples however that had all leather removed. Those have a small peen block on the pommel cap. They cut off the langets and stamped the sabres with Danish unit and regimental marks. Somewhere down the line the sabres got new scabbards too. ( See that small picture with the red background below ). Testimony to the durability of the sabres is that the last Danish ,, upgrade '' took place in 1899! One way or another, mine survived intact. The only thing Danish on it is the lone Danish Army inspection and/or acceptance stamp on a langet. F under crown, meaning Danish King Frederic VII.
There are three more stamps, but those are Schleswig inspection and/or acceptance stamps, a 4 lobed Ducal crown on the guillon:
on the drag of the scabbard:
and a 7 stamped in the mouthpiece, which by the way, is the biggest mouthpiece I ever saw:
It is huge!
There is no evidence of further stamps or reason to believe stamps were removed.
So, a very rare bird indeed. Also because like the Prussian M1848 Artillery sabres, it is, according to Deutsches Blankwaffen Forum, a direct descendant of the venerable M 1811 Blucher sabre. These sabres are indeed the very last incarnation of the old Hussar / Light Cavalry designs. They came into the market a little too late, when the general preference was in favour of the bar and bowl guards for some time already. This new direction in sabre design got us for instance the Danish M1843 Cavalry sabre, one of the first of those very modern looking proto Ikea lamp shade cum nifty kitchen appliance type hilts. The Prix d'Honeur for the original design though goes to the Italians with the Italian M1834 Cavalry sabre, the very first of the breed. The Danes just copied the Italian M1834.
This design was very successful too, as it was also copied by the Austrians as the M1845, by the Norwegians as the M1857 / 66, by the Swedes as the M1852 and later by the Italians as the M1860 as follow up to their M1834. As Pino explains in his excellent sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/35846/western-light-cavalry-swords-hussar and sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/44053/1796-1811-light-cavalry-sabres the Hussar hilts also fell foul of the German tendency for uniformity. One sabre for all of the Cavalry, one design for the Artillery and so on. Einheid. So, these excellent handling and performing Hussar hilted sabres got the hand me down treatment and served as Mounted Artillery sabres and further down the line as Gendarme and Train sabres. A pity and the Danes saw this too. They, when they introduced these almost perfect Cavalry weapons, called them ,, Mounted Artillery AND Cavalry sabres M1869 ''. Because, like me, they were so favourably impressed with these sabres, they gave them a nickname: ,, Større ''( ,, The big one '' ).
Which is interesting, because compared to the French M1822 it is not huge at all. Its blade is dwarfed by the 95 cm French blade, as is the blade thickness of 9 mm under the guard compared to the French 11 mm thick blades. It quite a bit longer than the Blucher,
but Danish sabres tend to be, like Swedish ones, on the beefier side as well. So, where is this ,, The Big One '' meme coming from? My guess is that this is because it oozes an unmistakable Teutonic aura. It is big on durability, handling, performance. It is ,, efficient '' in a totally Germanic sense. Another high quality design from Solingen. In my view the French nor the British could ever quite surpass this level.
Build of the Schleswig - Holstein and where it differs from the Prussian, Saxon and Bavarian Mounted Artillery sabres.
In the picture you see, from left to right, the Prussian, the Saxon and the Bavarian versions of the hilts.
Courtesy of Zieten Hussaren.
I think the general design of the blades is more or less the same, though I suspect the Bavarian to have a ( slightly ) heavier build. That scabbard looks quite a bit wider. I think a lot of the ,, German sabres are heavy bruisers '' meme came out of the general direction of Austrian ally Bavaria. Austria was no slouch in the beefy department itself of course. Take one look at a Bavarian M1826 Cavalry sabre and you know that ,, beefy '' is quite an understatement. If you drop that thing it will go right through the floor.
There are some differences in the designs of the drags and the mouth pieces as always, but we look at the hilts for now.
The Schleswig has a soft curve going from the back strap to the wings and the langets cover the width of the blade. Also the grip has twisted, quite thick, wire. A major difference is that the Schleswig has a leather finger strap mounted under the ferrule.
Danish M1869 / 99 still with leather under the ferrule.
Though I am not a fan of mounting leather under ferrules, or mounting washers under blade shoulders for that matter, on my sabre the grip and the blade are as tight as they come and even after 169 years have gone by, I cannot detect any negative consequences. It must be the pinned wings that hold it all together. The Prussian has hard corners where the wings connect to the back strap, the langets are much narrower and the grips aren't wired. That is really all. The Prussians lost the leather over wood grip and got a Bakelite grip much later. Whether there are differences in the blades I cannot say. I do not own a Prussian Mounted Artillery sabre. That said, it stands to reason that there will be no difference at all between the Schleswig - Holstein and Prussian blades. The Prussians were allies of the Schleswig - Holsteiners and the Schleswig - Holstein Army needed outfitting on a really very short notice.
Both share the same bulbous ferrule and the bulging grip. Testimony to the ongoing influence of the venerable Prussian Blucher sabre is found on the Schleswig - Holstein scabbard too. It shares the flat backed scabbard and the drag with the solid steel block that is brazed to the sheet metal scabbard.( See the image above ). This sheet metal is just 1 mm thick by the way, not nearly as thick as the iron scabbard of the Bluchers. It works, but I was quite surprised to notice this, since I got used to the standard French 1.5 mm thick sheet.
Handling. ( A very personal take ).
What can I say?
Excellent? Does not cut it. It handles better than excellent, which is a total surprise. It is lightning fast, almost weightless and still it packs a punch too, though this is more a real cutter, slasher and stabber. It has all the qualities of the finest of old school Cavalry sabres and dwells very much in the Hussar tradition. The grip is just right for me. Point control is outstanding. Balance ditto. It is very much into a league far beyond Mounted Artillery needs. Breathtaking is nearer the truth. It exhumes a feeling of reliability too. Apart from the M1829 Artillery, which is in a class of its own, handling my French sabres always makes me feel that something is about to drop off. It's not that the Frenchies DO fall apart, but there is this feeling they might.
Nothing like that here in the German universe. This thing rocks and I suspect that those pins through the grip have a lot to do with that. And Solingen steel of course.
The numbers.
Oa. sabre in scabbard: 105.5 cm.
Oa. sabre: 104 cm.
Length of the blade: 89 cm.
Thickness of the blade: 9 - 6.5 - 6 - 4.5 - 3.5 - 3 mm 1" from the tip.
Blade thickness at the underside of ricasso: 6 mm.
Blade width: 32 mm.
Length of foible: 21 cm.
POB: 14.5 cm from the guard.
Weight of sabre: 1010 grams.
Weight of scabbard: 951 grams. Total weight: 1961 grams.
Distance between the ring mounts: 24 cm. ( First generation ).
Stamped on the Ricasso: Gebr. Weyersberg. ( 1787 - 1883 ).
Stamped on langet: F under Crown. ( Danish King Frederick VII : 1848 - 1863 ).
Stamped on the guillon: Ducal four lobed Crown. ( Schleswig ).
Stamped on the drag: Ducal four lobed Crown. ( Schleswig ).
Stamped on one side of the mouth piece: 7.
Leather covered and black lacquered wood grip. ( Some lacquer is still in situ on my example).
The grip is wired with quite thick two strand twisted brass wire.
The ,, antique '' sword knot is a home made, slightly adjusted, one on one copy of a Swedish sword knot, though I used ,, normal '' leather. I kept the turkshead knot on the fringe body, but I changed the slide to a standard one. The Swede has a variation on the handkerchief knot for a slide.
A handkerchief knot is not complicated to make, see YouTube for that, but you'll need some very stiff leather to make such a slide functional. And believe me, those Swedish sword knots are as stiff as a board.
Remains of the Dybboel stronghold after the Prussian bombartment of 1864.
Conclusion.
Get one.
Easier said than done. These Schleswigs are rare to say the least and they find you, not the other way around. As a second best version I would recommend a Danish M1869 from before 1899. That should be doable and should be more or less affordable too. Another way to taste this unspoiled steel delight, though not very much saving on the money front, would be to search for a Prussian or Saxon M1848 with an original 89 cm blade from before 1902, when Wilhelm had the blades cut up. Lastly there is the Prussian from after 1902 with the 82 cm blade. It is also more affordable than the others, but the shorter blade might have some influence on the superb handling the originals have. Quality wise I would not recommend Prussian Artillery sabres, or any sabre for that matter, from after 1915. The Great War effort took a heavy toll on the quality department, although the downward spiral does not show much in the beginning of the decline. 1915 is a date set just to be sure you do not get a dud.
Lastly I would like to say that this is the first Solingen steel sabre I worked on. Until now I worked only on French sabres. I found there are differences in the steel of my example and I had to adjust to that given. Some tricks I used on the French blades had a very different effect on this Solingen blade. The structure looks more ,, crystalline '' up close. There were these very, very fine dots of different colours within a ,, raindrop '' pattern that vanished again under the polish. I almost thought it to be ,, water steel ''. All in all it took 62 hours total to bring the blade back to its former glory. Doing the restoration with utmost care and respect was a real joy for me and an adventure too. I hope it will survive for another 169 years at least.
Cheers.
The Arms of Schleswig - Holstein.
Notes.
Much of the information contained in this post I lifted from www.deutsches-blankwaffenforum.de/index.php?s=f29d9b2ab2989ff6dc549e93a5404b18
Membership is free and a must if you want to see the pictures.
I am not plugging this site because I get paid to do that or something. It is just the ,, to go to '' place if you want to know all about sabres of the German speaking peoples. The detailed information is unsurpassed, also where sabres from other nations are concerned.
Some interesting links:
List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rulers_of_Schleswig-Holstein
Frederick VII of Denmark - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_VII_of_Denmark
Truppenstempel auf Waffen der Schleswig-Holsteinischen Armee ab 1848: www.deutsches-blankwaffenforum.de/topic.php?id=1034&page=1%E1%9C%AB
First Schleswig War - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Schleswig_War
Second Schleswig War - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Schleswig_War
The first Danish war. PDF: www.museum-sonderjylland.dk/SIDERNE/Museumsbutik/documents/FoersteSlesvigskeKrig-Engelskudgave.pdf
Second Danish War. PDF.: www.museum-sonderjylland.dk/siderne/Det-sker/documents/1864-Engelsk.pdf
The two Danish-Prussian Wars 1848-51 and 1864: fortress-scandinavia.dk/Slesvigske-krige/ENG/ENG_Slesvigske_1_ny.htm
Die schleswig-holsteinische Erhebung 1848-51: sh4851.de/home.html
Krigen 1848: natmus.dk/historisk-viden/danmark/nationalstaten-1848-1915/stat/krigen-1848/
The Gun That Should Have Changed Everything | HistoryNet: www.historynet.com/the-gun-that-should-have-changed-everything.htm
The Dreyse Needle Gun: The reason for the Danish Krag: forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?393416-The-Dreyse-Needle-Gun-The-reason-for-the-Danish-Krag
Full text of "(1871-1918) German Army & Navy Uniforms & Insignia": archive.org/stream/1871-1918GermanArmyNavyUniformsInsigni/1871-1918GermanArmyNavyUniformsInsignia_djvu.txt
Large Danish Sabre with fascinating History: www.swordforum.com/forum/showthread.php?118047-Large-Danish-Sabre-with-fascinating-History
Arma-Dania Blankvåben: www.arma-dania.dk/public/timeline/_ad_blankvaben_list.php
1864 Battle of Dybøl - YouTube:
Scimitar-Sabre used by Danish Officer in 1848-50 Slesvig War: myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=30820
The 1796 & 1811 (light) cavalry sabres: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/44053/1796-1811-light-cavalry-sabres
NOTA:
I have edited the text to reflect the reality that the Italian M1834 Cavalry sabre was the first with the modern guard design and the Danes came in second with the M1843.