French N. R. Gothic Hilt Lion Head Superior Officer Sword.
Aug 26, 2017 22:08:08 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Aug 26, 2017 22:08:08 GMT
Lion - General symbolism:
The lion is the symbol of the resurrection of Christ and as such decorated many Christian tombs.
The lion is the symbol of power, strength, courage and justice and destroyer of evil and ignorance.
In the Holy Bible Christ is called the Lion of Judah.
And let us not forget that was the title too of the former Emperors of Ethiopia: Lion of Judah.
On arms of all nations:
Often the most noble part is used, namely the head.
Because of the lions combativeness which will lead to certain and rapid victory.
Never mind that in reality the lion is a lazy b*stard, its main occupations being Sleeping, F*cking and Eating (SFE) ( also, on occasion, that irritating whelp wot bited its nose ) A kind of a Feline Hippie. (FH)
Bully of the Bush. Slutty Sloth of the Serengeti.
No wonder then that the PC ( Parasitic Class ) took the lion for its emblem of choice, all the while assuring us of the nobility of themselves, pardon, the beast.
Yeah. Right. Pull the other one.
Because of restrictions for the length of a title, I will give the full header of this article here, just to get the description right:
A French Non Regulation Chasseur à Pied Superior Officer De Luxe Gothic hilt Lion Head Phantasy Sword.
Dating.
As with most swords and sabres of the ,, Phantasy '' type, classification is sometimes purely made on what we think certain details tell us.
This sword for instance seems to tell us the following:
The design of the guillon and the basic design and the length of the blade point to the French Infantry Officers sword M1882.
So, this confection is most probably made for an an Infantry Officer.
As the sword knot slot is in the vertical position, we can be sure this sword was made for an Officer of the French Colonial Army.
This one: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/51829/french-regulation-superior-officer-sword is most probably a Cavalry sword, a light Cavalry Pallasch with its double fullered blade and its blade length of 92 cm. It was made for an Officer of the Armee d'Afrique.
Did Officers of the Colonial Army have more leeway to deviate from the regulation norm?
The firm where the sword was purchased is Prevel.
Prevel was in business from 1870 to about 1890. This fits nicely with the M1882 being used as basis. What is also of importance is that Prevel mainly catered to Cavalry Officers with variations on the M1822 theme and to Officers of the Chasseurs. I interpret this to mean both Chasseur à Pied and Mounted Chasseurs.
Here we see a Prevel M1822.
So. We can only put the creation of the sword in a rather wide 1882 - 1890 time frame, but probably closer to 1882 as the scabbard still has two rings. There are no further clues to narrow the date down as far as I can see.
Craftsmanship.
One can definitely state that the House of Prevel was a high end outlet for the discerning and moneyed Officer. Though I do not think Prevel did the forging of the blade and the casting of the hilt parts in house, this entrepreneur demanded the highest quality of the firms that supplied the raw essentials. The mirror finish blade is absolutely faultless.
Look at those fullers and especially at the point where the central fuller stops and the two secondary fullers start. Look at the way those fullers end and begin. Look at the way the oval blade goes over in a flat diamond section at the start of the central fuller. Everything is precise and straight and merciless in its execution. Difficult to photograph, my pictures do not do it justice.
There are no flaws in the casting of the iron alloy hilt parts.
No blow holes. Nothing.
Look at the shade of dark grey of the hilt parts which contrasts so fine with the silvery blade. It looks somewhat like old tin. What kind of alloy did Prevel order? Sadly I do not know. These parts will rust, so there must be a lot of iron in there and my magnet sticks like all hell too.
What Monsieur Prevel did do however it seems, apart from demanding the best of what the smith and the foundry could offer. is the detailing of the raw parts.
He must have had access to the best metal workers. The chasing of the lion head is phenomenal in its extremely minute detail.
I have a couple of M1889 Prussian IOD's, one of which is a ,, Große '' with a damast blade. This was supposed to be the creme de la creme of Solingen craft.
Well, as far as I can see Prevel or the person who did the actual work was better. By far. This is high class 18th century costs be damned level.
What I find interesting though is that the lion head has a distinct air about it. The Prussian Lion head is much more realistic. More Roman.
Here I definitely see something what could be Parthian or Indian.
It is also interesting to see how the peen was worked and chased into the mane. Just like it was done with the Prussian M1889.
Another interesting novelty is in the wiring. This was done in silver wire. Two thin strands flank a thick wire that seems to be twisted. Nothing unusual about that.
Now look again.
The thick middle wire was not made from twisted strands at all. It is a chain. A very fine silver chain. I never saw that done on a grip.
The Emblem.
Again there is much minute hand chased detail to see here.
The elements that point in the direction that this sword was made for a Superior Officer are mostly the same as those on the emblem on the 1840 pallasch mentioned above.
On the punched background we see a laurel and oak crown.
On this element we see a sword and lance crossed with what looks like a Fasces. The underside of this bundle of sticks can be seen to the right.
On top of this ensemble rests a shield. The rim of the shield is punched to make it look like it was strengthened with a row of round objects . The inner surface's rim is again punched with a row of diamond shaped nail heads.
On the shield rest two javelins and something what looks like a folded mantle. The significance of the folded mantle, if it is mantle, eludes me at the moment, but we may rest assured it is an attribute of one of the heroes of the Odyssee Saga. Archilles? As an aside: I had to read the Odyssee at school. I say ,,had'' because this never ending story bored me to death. It still does.
Jimi Hendrix had just blown my mind with Hey Joe. At my school girls were forbidden to wear slacks and every day they wore their mothers pearls. You get the drift? I could not wait to go home and play the record, over and over again.
My poor mother had a nervous breakdown. The first of many to come yet. Luckily the poor girl did not know. Such NOISE ! Made by a Black Lunatic Communist Beast (BLCB) no less! The horror! The horror! Oooh!
And lastly, on top of all this, we see a helmet in the Greek style, adorned with lots of ostrich feathers and another crown, this time made up from laurels only.
If this jumble of attributes does not point in the general direction of Superiority, Leadership and the Heroic, my name is Dorothy and I'll eat your vinyl copy of Are you Experienced.
Contrary to what I have done before in the Phantasy Pallash Post (PPP), see above, pointing out the meaning of each element, for you that is, you may now do it yourself (DIY) this time around.
Have fun.
Work.
Apart from some cleaning there was only one serious thing that had to be done, namely the making of new liners.
As you can see here the old liners had broken to bits. That is what you get after enough time when the liners are made very thin.
Before I go into the process of making new liners the Ulahn way, I would like to explain what they are for.
Luckily I held on to a set of Japanese Gunto liners as those make a very interesting and traditional example of what liners are supposed to do.
See liners as an inner wooden scabbard to hold and protect the blade from getting dull, scruffy and rusty from constant contact with the outer casing, the metal scabbard.
As you can see the Japanese took this business very seriously, like they tend to do with anything sword related.
The blade was completely encased in wood. Japanese ladies made these during the war and not only for heirloom blades. The standard stainless blades got the same treatment.
Here you can see what I call the ,, Ghost '' of the Gunto tip.
And the ,, Ghost '' of the Habaki.
The Western way was more oriented to do this stuff in a more relaxed manner. Just get two thin pieces of wood to hold the blade. The mouthpiece takes care of the rest.
If there would be some scratching on the ricasso, so be it. The French way comes to mind.
Ulahn does it like this:
Get some thin wood. In this case 1.5 mm triplex used for model airplanes. This stuff comes thinner too, like 1 mm and 0.5 mm.
Note: If you go thinner than 1.5 mm the wood will bend more to the blade, so you need to discard most of what I say here. Parameters get changed.
Measure the inside of the scabbard because the blade will never reach the bottom and the new liners should rest precisely there.
In most cases the depth of the scabbard will be 1 to 1.5 cm more than the blade length.
Lay the blade on the wood and mark the outline with pencil and be sure to add the missing centimeter(s).
In this case I used a curtain rail as cutting ruler. Works very well.
The liners in the raw.
As you can see here we have to adjust the width of the liners so they will fit in between the blade and the scabbard wall.
Here the liners bind the blade.
In general you could just take 1 to 2 mm off the width of the liner to start with. You can do this before you cut, but be careful not to take off too much.
Rounding the edges of the cut liners where they get to touch the scabbard wall will also free up space.
The point is to give the blade just enough space so it can be inserted without much effort, without the blade binding somewhere down there and still have it stay in place when holding the sabre or sword upside down.
That may take some fiddling, but by inserting the blade and seeing where it binds, taking out the blade and the liners and sanding them down a bit locally, again inserting liners and the blade etc etc, one can get good results indeed.
When you got everything in order, cut and sand down the liners at the top, so they fit between the mouthpiece and the scabbard.
Most if not all mouthpieces are made to accommodate the sanded down liners for about 1.5 cm. They get narrower near the end.
Be very sure you measure well here.
Handling.
This sword when in hand feels almost weightless.
With this blade one can pick off the fly on the Generals nose. Effortless point control. Stiff and sturdy blade. Forget cutting though.
I do not know how effective this , lets call it a rapier because that is what it essentially is, would be in the din of war, but it sure as hell is a perfect example of a duelling sword from the Belle Epoque.
Even as late in the century there was still duelling going on. It could even have been better had the blade been a bit longer, like the rapiers of old.
The numbers.
Weight overall: 1068 gram.
Weight of the sword: 797 gram.
Length overall: 99 cm.
Length of the sword: 97 cm.
Length of the blade: 82.5 cm.
Width of the blade: 27 mm going down to 13 mm at the turn to the tip.
Thickness of the blade: 8 : 5.2 : 4 : 3.5 : 2 mm.
Grip length, inside. From guard to just under the lion chin: 11 cm.
Grip length, outside. From the guard to the top of the lion head: 14 cm.
POB: 10cm from the guard.
Conclusion.
This is a very well made late example of a good Officers sword. It outclasses the Epee. It is much too strong of build. As an object of outstanding craftsmanship that was dying out even back then, it demands our respect.
Still capable of doing fatal damage in a very controlled manner but in a civilized setting, like in a park.
Would also be very effective in discouraging efforts to relieve one of ones wallet when on the way home from an evening spend at Madame Susies Palace of Lust. ( MSPL)
Though it surely is build strong enough to withstand the rigours of war, I do not see it being very effective there.
An outstanding example of an end product. The very last of all swords that came before. Amen.
Notes.
I introduced this sword earlier here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/44733/sabre-phantasie-dofficier-zouave. This older post was made before I had the chance to do some research etc. It is now redundant.
Chasseurs d'Afrique: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasseurs_d%27Afrique
Chasseurs d'Afrique: www.historyhome.co.uk/forpol/crimea/chasseur.htm
Les Chasseurs d'Afrique Fanfare: www.youtube.co/watch?v=ikfwuXduD9g
Les Chasseurs d'Afrique in Mexico: gisby.info/maxdafriq.htm
Order of battle for the Balaclava campaign: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_for_the_Balaclava_campaign
The Other Charge: adventuresinhistoryland.com/2013/10/25/the-other-charge-of-the-light-brigade/