A rare Spanish Espada de Montar de Oficial circa 1830.
Dec 25, 2019 14:11:04 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Dec 25, 2019 14:11:04 GMT
Introduction.
A dealer send me some pictures of the sword under review here.
I could not make head or tail of it and was very reluctant at first.
I did a preliminary search into the regulation Spanish sword and sabre lists of Vincente de Toledo Momparler and came up empty. So, in order to shut the affair down in an agreeable way, as I was focused working on the Italian M1834 and M1860 and really had no time to waste with hunts going nowhere, I proposed to buy it for the ridiculous price of 1.5 Windlasses including shipping as I did not trust the inscription, it being so large for Toledo, hoping he would take the sword somewhere else.
Much to my chagrin my offer was accepted though and some days later there I was with another (Spanish?) kinda mystery Mickey Mouse sword on my desk. Dang!
The search for the sword.
However, during cleaning of the blade with some WD40 and lots of rags as it was dirty as all hell, I came to the conclusion that what I had in hand was really a very nice Officers sword of excellent workmanship.
The blade was very well made and of fighting proportions, with a high polish and firm in the hilt, though lacking stamps. The hilt still showed remnants of the old fire gild here and there. No file marks or other evidence of shoddy work, the grip well made and most of the very fine wire intact and the counter guard had these nice little scrolls at the ends. Most of the basket liner was still there but in a bad dried out state and the finely stitched leather scabbard, including the furniture, was from the period. Even the repair was very old.
This brightened the mood somewhat and I spend the next evenings hunting down the sword.
Here I would like to give some advice I gave earlier in the hunt for two other Spanish swords (See the notes):: Use Google Translate or another translator to be able to do the hunting using Spanish key words for your (image) search. Doing research in English in the Spanish speaking realms of the internet will get you exactly nowhere.
What first came up was a Spanish sword, made in Toledo in the late 17th to the beginning of the 18th centuries, especially for the Spanish colonial forces. In the Spanish regulation data base it is listed as such ( made for Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc) and it will not show in results for the regular Spanish Army.
This Bilbo type sword with a triple fullered blade later was turned into the Espada Ancha types known from the Spanish Americas. Looking at my blade however it was obvious it was made much later. The search bots also came up with two threads in English (See the notes) on SFI and Vikingsword respectively.
These threads delved into the Espada Ancha and later triple fullered blade variants, made for the Spanish (former) colonial market and notably Mexico. The variants were made by the Solingen firms of Luneschloss, Waldscheid etc and hilted in the style of the British P1821 - P1827 and Bavarian M1826 Cavalry Officers sabres.
To make these, made for export to the Spanish Americas, sabres and swords more attractive to the Spanish minded clientele,
the German factories copied the ,,Fabrica de Toledo'' etch.
On the ricasso though there would be the all telling Solingen stamps. The Solingen forges also exported the parts for assembly to order at the destination.
As my sword didn't have a Solingen stamp and having the growing conviction that the Solingen forges never came up with an original design of their own, but stole and mixed up designs were they could get away with it, I had the feeling that there should be a authentic Spanish model lurking in the shadows somewhere. As Edelweiss was active in the SFI thread mentioned above, I mailed him and asked whether he would be willing to delve into the matter as he knows more about Mexican sabres and those bought up from Mexico by the Confederates at the beginning of the ACW than I ever will and he agreed to try to help me out.
In the meantime my search went on and then, two nights later, I found a picture on Spanish Google Images, too small to really make out what was there. So I clicked on it and there it was.
Perfect match.
It even had the basket liner. It was a picture taken from a Spanish PDF file (See the notes), one of a series of PDFs describing all regulation Spanish swords and sabres used by all branches with the matching guns to booth. Eureka!
I mailed Edelweiss with the results and that was that. The thing was as Spanish as it could ever be.
The Spanish Espada de Montar de Oficial.
The Spanish text in the description of this sword speaks of an ,,Espada de montar '' which translated, means ,,riding sword ''.
So, if we follow this line of thought ,, Espada de montar de Oficial '' could be literally translated as meaning ,, Officers riding sword ''. What this really alludes to is ,, sword for a mounted Officer ''.
The original text is not very specific and alludes to all sabres and swords in this grey area, though the sword type blade, its length and the two side bars suggest that this particular model was intended for an Officer of the Light Cavalry.
Other branches seemed to have mostly sabres.
All sabres and swords in this category have this particular Fabrica de Toledo etch.
What becomes clear however when reading through the texts, is that this Epada de Montar category is typically Spanish and not Spanish American, nor meant for export. These swords and sabres have their own pages in the Spanish Regulation Army sword and sabre list, a book compiled by José Ángel Cabrera Arroyo.
This (entire?) work can be downloaded in PDF format at Docplayer. I will give the link in the notes and recommend to anyone even slightly interested in Spanish sabres and swords to download as much as you can.
Even when you have no interest at all right now, you may regret not doing so later.
There is much very interesting information there and storage is cheap.
There are some things of interest here.
No.1 :: There is talk of the blade being ,,unusual'', because of the three fullers in the upper third section.
Indeed, this is the only listed model sporting this typical triple fullered blade inspired by an obscure Toledo made Bilbo, exclusively made for use in the colonies, in around the beginning of the 18th century.
No.2 :: The hilt is a variation on the British Light Cavalry Officers sabre P1821, including the scroll ending of the counter guard. The hilt is made from brass though instead of steel.
No.3 :: It seems that this is the only category that has this particular quite large and undated ,,Fabrica de Toledo'' etch on the blade. Small wonder the Solingen boys copied that too. There are no other stamps or marks that could indicate a foreign make. Not even the made for export indicating Solingen Rose on the spine side of the ricasso.
No.4 :: This is the only model that has a basket liner as standard. If the liner was not standard, the Spanish Army Museum would have removed it or at least have mentioned this in the description.
What they do mention though is that the liner was meant to act as a dust cover.
No.5 :: Reading through the PDFs it becomes clear that whenever sabres or swords were bought from an outside source, meaning it was not made at Toledo,
this is always mentioned as ,, bought from the commercial market'', meaning in most if not all cases the Solingen export market. The ,, sourced from the commercial market'' is not mentioned in the description of the sword under review here.
Though it could be said that not all Solingen made for export wares were marked as such, the chance my sword was made by Solingen is indeed very small. Thus far all Solingen exports of this model made for the Spanish Americas that turned up have one or another Solingen forge stamp. And as Solingen export models were always variations on the real thing, however slight those variations might be, my sword is 100% like the sword in the catalogue.
At the moment, until evidence to the contrary turns up, I can only conclude my sword was indeed made by Toledo and is the genuine, Spanish made, Espada de Montar de Oficial article.
Work and the proof in the pudding.
Though I was convinced the sword was indeed of Toledo make, it just kept nagging in the back of my head that there should be clear proof. More so because the sword in the catalogue looked like it had a steel hilt and the Solingen made copies often had brass hilts, like the one under review here.
After I had cleaned the blade up with 180 and 280 grid and started the polish with the 3M red and grey mat, things started happening. While going over the blade with steel wool a, at first faint, dark line started to show, close to the edge. This dark line grew more clear the more I polished with higher grade wool.
In fact the line went around the entire blade, resembling a kind of Hamon like a Katana has.
It is the border line of a soft steel layer on the hard steel core which also makes the cutting edge.
A typical old school Toledo laminated blade. Now that the polish is done I count 7 alternating layers of hard white steel and soft dark grey blue steel starting with the white steel core/edge and ending with a white steel layer on the top, per side.
As the Solingen forges never bothered with the lamination process and it is relatively recently scientifically proven (See the notes for the PDF) this is precisely what made Toledo blades, well, Toledo, I now have irrefutable evidence that this sword is indeed a Spanish made sword and not a cheap Solingen made knock off.
Pudding all around!!
The basket liner posed a bit of a problem. Build up out of several layers of thin leather, the outer layers had started to flake now that the black top coat was gone.
In fact, the entire thing was made up out of paper thin flakes more or less joined together but barely hanging on and what was worse, the liner or what was left of it was only connected with the basket through the piece under the ferule. The rest was entirely lose and when grabbing the grip chances were that one would tear the liner remains right off. The best thing I could think off was to glue the lose flakes back on what remained of the core and paint the outer shell with thin paint with a lot of siccative to impregnate the leather and get some form of cohesion.
I'd rather had left the liner alone, but it was either this or total destruction.
Description.
Very nice stiff blade of hexagonal section for the first third where the fullers run and from there of oval section up to the thick tip. Well made, well tempered and the original polish was mirror grade.
Black lacquered, leather over wood grip, bound with very fine, double, twisted wire.
Brass hilt with some fire gild remaining, the small counter guard with two scrolls at the ends.
The leather basket liner is placed between the grip and the guard plate and going up over the knuckle bow, tucked under the pommel cap. This liner is build up of many thin layers, probably stretched wet over a mold and when dry glued together like it was done by the hat makers of the period and then painted black like the leather scabbards.
The finely stitched scabbard belongs to the sword.
Some of the original black lacquer remaining on the scabbard leather, in places about 2-3 mm thick, which, were it intact, would have made this now floppy affair as stiff as a board.
The scabbard has a complete set of original period brass furniture. Old, probably period, repair.
LOA :: 98.5 cm.
BL :: 86.5 cm.
BLW :: 31.5 mm.
BLT :: 6.5 mm.
WS ::725 gram.
POB :: 15.7 cm.
Handling.
There are many moments during my daily, the laws of physics defying, bicycle expedition to and from work, when I whole heartily wish I could lay the wrath of all the Gods of Valhalla unto my fellow men and toddler toting, email reading, phone jabbering and texting while negotiating anarchic traffic ,,multitasking'' women and assorted sardine brained schools of stoned out of their head tourists whot block bicycle lanes shrouded in impregnable clouds of pot smoke, all of the above causing hellish mayhem and much despair, bringing to the surface Yeh Olde Bad Berserker(TM) in Uhlan.
This Espada de Montar would be just the right implement to bring about some long overdue clearing of fogged up minds and much needed and instantaneous improvements to, generally speaking, appalling manners.
Do I need to say more?
Cheers.
Notes.
Vincente de Toledo Momparler: vicentetoledo.es/es/espadas/espadas-militares
LA CABALLERIA ESPAÑOLA - Sables de Caballería 1815-1909: www.caballeriaespañola.es/fotos/sables-de-caballer%C3%ADa-1815-1909/
LA CABALLERIA ESPAÑOLA - Espadas de Caballería 1800-1909: www.caballeriaespañola.es/fotos/espadas-de-caballer%C3%ADa-1800-1909/
IMPORTANT PDF! ,,Examination of a Toledo sword'':: www.researchgate.net/publication/235886833_A_Metallographic_Examination_of_a_Toledo_Steel_Sword
SFI :: Spanish Colonial Mexican espada de ancha:
www.swordforum.com/vb4/showthread.php?117719-Help-Me-Identify-This-Sword-Please
Swords Used by the Presidial Soldier:
www.sonsofdewittcolony.org/adp/history/hispanic_period/espada_ancha/espancha.html
Ethnographic Arms & Armour - Markings or Decorations on Mexican Swords:
www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3531
Espapda Ancha: www.aagaines.com/ebinventory/espadaanchasw.html
Chapter Eighteen: somosprimos.com/michaelperez/ribera18/ribera18.htm
Some Spanish weapons in the American Revolution PDF: americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2005-B91-Some-Spanish-Weapons-in-the-American-Rev.pdf
Docplayer: Espada de Montar PDF: docplayer.es/55429868-55-sables-y-espadas-de-montar-para-tropa-de-caballeria-ii.html