A French Empire AN XI Light Cavalry Officer Sabre.

A French Empire AN XI Light Cavalry Officer Sabre.



Introduction.

The sabres à la Chasseur d'Officier de Cavalerie légère AN XI were made to about 1850.
Often the date of manufacture is not very clear and often this results in later examples being priced as Empire or Empire sabres being priced as of a later vintage.
Sellers do not always know and buyers ditto.
Confusion reigns, mistakes are being made, expectations are crushed, buyers get ripped off.
This is not unusual in this market, but there is a way to avoid all of this and maybe turn it to your advantage. Sabers assumed to be of later vintage are priced from about 800 to about 1200 euros. Empire makes sell from about 1200 to 2000 or more.
Having had the extreme luck to be able to score an Empire sabre for a later vintage price (yes, it still happens!) and finding this out AFTER the sale and AFTER I had read the thread in PassionMilitaria, it seems logical to make the information available to those here on the forum who may be interested in acquiring one of these often very nice sabres.
In the notes the links to the PassionMilitaria thread (three pages!) come first. There are two of them. The first is the original in French, the second the same article but now piped through Google Translate.
As Google Translate is well....Google Translate, you may need to switch to and fro to make sense of this new ,,language''. (!@!)
I would advise you to bookmark the threads and read all of it's pages.
Throughout the thread you'll find everything you'll need to make a list of all important points of reference, so you are now armed and ready to go hunting.

Now I hear the laments of a thousand voices (well, maybe two): AAAWWW Uhlan, duuuude, why don't you give us this list ready to go so we can do some cutting, drink beer, do some BBQ and have our fun?
Because the Uhlan is a pr!ck and the only good way to learn stuff is when you do the work yourself. That's why.
So stop yer moaning and start compiling.






The sabre.

You may pick up some pointers here, but you still have to read the PassionMilitaria thread to have access to the full list of what makes an Empire sabre.





The blade.

These Officers Empire AN XI sabres, ornate as they may be, were working sabres. Made for battle.
The blades were long and beefy, sometimes even more so than those for the Troopers.
Many had Hussar or Lancer style blades, just like this one. I did some superficial research by looking at pictures of 130 different examples of the Officer AN XI. 13 had this exact blade type.
That is 1 : 10.
And many of those were made for Light Cavalry Officers. One cannot label this blade design as exclusive for Lancers (Officers) anymore. Every Light Cavalry Officer could use it.





The spine here is round and faceted. Not all sabres have this faceted spine. Here it is just an extra and a very well executed one too.
This blade oozes quality and is one of the finest in my small collection. One thing which is quit obvious is that the steel is dark.
Much darker than any other blade I have. Haven't a clou as to why.







A majority of blades had nothing in the way of bluing and gilding and if they had it was done in only a summier way.
Those blades with the blue ending in tendrils were of a later make, as this design, in France, came into use only after 1820.
The first models where we can see this design were the M1821 Infantry Officers sabres. It never really caught on in France, not in the way it did in the Anglo-Germanic world.





This does not mean that a blade with such decoration cannot be Empire.
The French have this penchant for re-bluing and re-gilding and there might be blades datable to the period but with 1821 tendril decoration. Anyway, if you see a blade with the tendrils you know there is something going on. You'll have to draw your own conclusions.



Sabre with blue and gild re-done.


Hilt and scabbard furniture decoration.

Really quite close to what Mr. l'Hoste says was the regulated standard. Very fine cast and chase work.
Absolutely nothing like the ,,Las Vegas'' style decoration one may find on many later examples.
There is still a lot of gild remaining.









The scabbard.

Empire Officers scabbards had a flat spine as per regulation. This changed in 1816.
The brass or bronze ring mounts could be decorated, again as per regulation or be very ornate, but many were just plain.
The mouth piece was also made from brass or bronze.







The numbers.

LOA:..........104 cm.
LS :.........100.5 cm.
BL :.......... 85.5 cm.
BT :.............. 9 mm.
BW :........32.5 mm.
WOA:..1580 gram.
WS :......887 gram.
POB: 12 cm under the guard.






Conclusion.

This is one of the best Solingen made sabres I have.
Fit and finish are impeccable.
It handles very well too.
Nothing in the way of the usual forge faults Solingen made Officers blades can have.
More than pleased with this chance find.

Cheers.






Notes.


www.passionmilitaria.com/t103791-les-sabres-d-officier-de-cavalerie-lgre-la-chasseur

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rosalielebel75.franceserv.com/cavalerie.html
www.sabresempire.com/2012/03/blog-post.html
www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/c_lightsaber.html