Armée d'Afrique L.C. Officers sabre based on the M1896.
Sept 28, 2019 10:24:45 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Sept 28, 2019 10:24:45 GMT
Armée d'Afrique Light Cavalry Officers sabre based on the M1896.
Introduction.
This fine sabre popped up 3 weeks ago, while I was up to my ears into the ,, Fixing three Blüchers'' project I have been promising to post for like forever. They are nearly done now and with this one I simply had to take time off for two weeks to get it up to Ulahn specs.
I could not let this one pass.
Too weird, too nice, too cheap. Too totally my cup of tea.
The Blüchers will be posted shortly. I hope...
The sabre.
Though this sabre resembles, qua basket, the M1896 Trooper sword, the re-enforcement some Trooper baskets have is absent here.
It seems, though l'Hoste is far from clear here, that the re-enforced basket was meant for the troopers of the Cavalry of the line and the smooth basket for the Light Cavalry Troopers.
It has an ergonomic semi pistol grip which enhances handling, where the regular M1896's have a slightly more stocky grip. The top of the grip seems to be slightly more bend backwards as on the regular M1896 sabres, the ,, pistol'' somewhat more pronounced.
Obviously the blade differs too. This one I like to think off as a ,,modern'' version of the old AN IX blade.
Even the curve is the same.
I am quite certain, but in the end I could be totally wrong of course, this sabre was made for a Cavalry Officer or NCO of the Armée d'Afrique, as this sort of individuality would not have been accepted anywhere else. I am a little worried though, because while polishing the dome on the pommel cap I found what looks like tiny file marks and the dome, which should be perfectly intact, a little flat just in front of the peen button, with some tiny hammer marks showing.
The peen button is intact and nicely rounded like it should be, though it also has 4 impact marks. It could be that the construction was just tightened up a bit.
The hilt getting some play over the years is a normal thing. The washer is still under the blade shoulders, but could have shrunk back then even as it has now, as the basket again shows a tiny amount of play.
Anyway, it does not look like an amateur stuck a blade of choice on this hilt. A peen button like this one here, is evidence of professional work, likely done by Mr. Barré.
So for now I believe this Cavalry Officer had Mr. Gustave Barré make him a good old fashioned no frills fighting sabre. The numbers will tell you it packs a punch too.
It survived almost untouched. My first impression is that however this is a campaign sabre for sure, there are no signs at all it was ever used in anger. It has the original sharp edge with only one, very small, contact mark in the tip section.
Like it never left the shop.
Gustave Barré.
Gustave Barré opened up his business in 1873. His stamp as shown here was in use until 1896.
After 1896 he started working with his son and the stamp changes to G. Barré (et) fils.
This dates the sabre to 1896 and so it could be one of the last with a blade adorned with the old stamp.
About the sabres that seem to be connected to the Armée d'Afrique.
These extraordinary unregulated and regulated ( Like the M1882 with the upright sword knot slot) sabres and swords one can still find here and there and mostly there is a connection with the Armée d'Afrique or better said, the Colonial Army, since there was a vast French presence in Asia too of course.
The tradition to have the freedom to choose how one wanted and what one wanted to carry into battle started for sure in 1831, but maybe was already present from day one of French colonial expansion. In 1831 General de Préval revealed to the Army brass his de Préval sword and was subsequently turned down by the establishment.
Officers and NCO's of the Armée d'Afrique however picked up on the idea and I know of one sword or pallasch for sale with a de Préval blade made as early as 1838 by Klingenthal no less and hilted by a fourbisseur named Sabati who worked in Paris. Later on we can see many more swords with the de Préval blade and with all kinds of basket designs like the following example with the smooth M1896 basket and with the de Préval blade, also hilted by Barré.
There are of course more early examples around of this need to distinguish oneself from the home boys.
The 1850's to 1860's period is particularly rich with these ,,Sabres Phantasie'' it seems.
Do not let the term ,,Sabres Phantasie'' mislead you into thinking these are all good for nothing show pieces. On the contrary.
These sabres and swords, however extravagant they may look compared to the regulation stuff,
are for the most part well made campaign sabres and swords and often perform better than the regulation fare. They had to, since there were constant troubles and tribulations in the Colonies. What they all have in common is that these weapons are all and totally geared to the needs of their owners and can therefore, in the hands of others, feel sub par.
Another point of view in this matter is that the Colonial Army Officers Corps acted as a breeding ground for sabre designs which later were adapted in some form or other for regulation use.
The basket of the M1882 comes to mind, as various early private efforts show and not to forget the single ring system, adopted only after 1871, but already in use by some Officers of the Colonial Army a long time before that date.
Handling or ,, One blow should do it. If you need two, you're doing it wrong.
A very personal take.
There isn't any finesse to the handling, no inclination to go ,,mano a mano'' as they say.
Not a fencer but sluggish.
As long as one can stay in the saddle all will be well I guess and this sabre will perform as long as the arms will hold out.
Down on the ground however the situation changes quite a bit and my guess is that any Berber with his Nimcha would have taken out the bearer of this sabre real quick.
It does not want to turn, nor does it want to stop.
It's more like ,,You lift me up and I will drop down like a steam hammer on those turbaned heads'' kinda thing.
This is probably what the Officer in question wanted or thought he needed to get the job done he was hired to do.
It sure does not mean this is a bad sabre.
It was just not made for me.
Whether this behaviour is a feature of the old AN IX Trooper sabre I do not know as I do not own one, but somehow I doubt it. I have an Officers AN IX with a slightly longer blade and less bronze in the hilt which is very fast indeed, but I do not think that it should qualify as a benchmark here.
Maybe the numbers will shed some light as to the why of this peculiar behaviour.
The numbers.
Weight M1896 OA - 1805 gram.
Per decree the weight of the old AN IX, including its scabbard, was not to exceed 1650 gram.
This with a maximum blade length of 88 cm.
Weight M1896 sabre - 1205 gram.
I think the extra weight must sit in the basket as this M1896 has the shorter blade.
BL.L. - 84.5 cm.
BL.W. - 35 mm.
BL. TH. - 9 mm.
POB - 12.5 cm.
Curve - 5 cm. Same as the AN IX.
Grip - 12.5 cm ergonomic semi pistol with 16 turns of wire. Normally the grips have only 12 turns.
Basket - bronze without decoration and I could not find any indication it was ever gilded.
Nor could I find any remnants of earlier polishing.
Thickness measured over several spots is a whopping 4 mm! Speaking of heavy duty!
The right side of the basket, the part that bends over the knuckles, is slightly bend inwards.
There are no signs at all this was due to an accident and there are no impact marks or evidence of repair of any kind.
Great force would have been needed as the basket functions as an egg shell and the bronze is very thick.
Therefore I believe this was done on request.
Without gauntlets the grip and this narrow basket feel awkward. With gauntlets however the basket fits like a glove. Like the sabre is one with the hand and the blade is just an extension of the arm.
As long as the hammer grip is favoured that is.
This makes one feel like Captain Hook in a way, but that's alright.
Here's how the seller advertised it.
Work.
Relatively little of that for a change.
The blade was near perfect. Only some slight discolouring in some places and some small spots of actual rust.
Nothing to worry about.
What I have never seen before is this ,, Dark to Light'' in the following picture. It looks like the area around the ricasso is darker than the rest of the blade. This can be observed on both sides. The cloudy line starts were the tip of the file shows and ends at the edge of the piece of sand paper.
What took more work was the removal of old cleaning scratches and some artifacts of (field?) sharpening.
Though the edge was very sharp, I had to take it down a bit, it resembled a saw blade, with little teeth made by the stone going down the blade. I could not actually see them, but with the fingernail I could feel them clearly.
Also the tip was busted. It looked like someone had dropped the sabre with the tip on stone.
Two small chips in the horn grip were repaired with PlayDo, pigment and super glue.
I cleaned the basket from a patina which was quite dark and thick only on one side. This probably means that the sabre hung from a wall. The patina was not really a bronze patina. More like it hung for years in a space thick with the smoke of Gauloises, the iconic French cigarette made from black tobacco.
Like a café for instance. I gave the washer a good once over with paraffin jelly of the medical variety, under the adagio of ,, what's good for human skin must be good for leather too''. Leather conditioners can attack the bronze, resulting in a heap of verde gris under and around the washer.
Made a new slide for the old French Cavalry field knot. That's about it.
There's a number 11 both on the drag and on the mouth piece. I do not think those are rack numbers, but parts numbers.
The scabbard needed more input. Lots of superficial rust that was easily cleaned off and some deeper rust spots that were also easy to polish out. There are some pit marks remaining though, but those are small clusters of pin point holes and however small they are, these often go very deep. So it was here and I decided to let them be.
They do not distract from the overall impression of near mint and add a certain character and age to the ensemble.
The scabbard shows little rust marks going from the drag up to the mouth on the inside, the side that was close to the horse when it hung from the saddle rig or where it touched a wall for a long time and some rust marks and one small impact crater on the outside. They are under the polish now, but can be seen when one is up close.
Overall the sabre looks a lot better now if I may say so myself. Not like new, but in a ,, well maintained old sabre'' state.
Conclusion.
Though this is not a sabre I would have preferred for use in action, I am very impressed with the craftsmanship that went into this private order. This one made by Mr. Barré is better than most I have seen so far of private order Solingen work.
There is no blade delimitation nor shoddy polishing or visible tool marks and the tempering is excellent in contrast to quite a few private order Solingen blades that take a set like you would not believe.
Though to be honest, many of these flashy Officers sabres were not meant to be used in battle anyhow.
In contrast to the one reviewed here. It's build like a tank.
And let's be frank some more while we're at it. For the very low price I paid of Euro 350 all in, this antique is a winner anytime in my book.
Also the idea that this private order sabre was the brainchild of two persons from a bygone era, makes it somehow rather up close and personal for me.
Like you are getting to know them a bit.
Cheers.
Notes.
The French Officers M1896 Cavalry sword :: users.skynet.be/euro-swords/M1896OC.htm
French 1896 Cavalry Officer's sword. - Swords & Edged Weapons - Gentleman's Military Interest Club :: gmic.co.uk/topic/68214-french-1896-cavalry-officers-sword/
Claude-Antoine-Hippolyte de Préval (1776-1853):: www.frenchempire.net/biographies/preval/
Google Translate: Passion Militaria :: Sabre Preval.:: translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.passionmilitaria.com%2Ft105966-sabre-preval
Two more interesting examples ::
sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/51829/french-regulation-superior-officer-sword
sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/51936/french-gothic-superior-officer-sword
I hope this Chasseur d'Afrique with his M1822 made it through the Marne Battle of 1914.
This picture was supposedly taken just before all hell broke loose.