Sword measurements

At the turn of the 19th Century, Northern and Southern Netherlands had been occupied by French revolutionary 'Liberation' forces and in 1806 Napoleon made the occupation official by proclaiming his brother, Louis the king of Holland. In 1810 the kingdom was abolished and integrated into the French Empire.

As part of the French Empire, Dutch forces participated in several battles, including the invasion of Russia (1812) and the defeat at the battle of Leipzig (1813). Which resulted in the withdrawal of France from the Netherlands.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in November 1813 under King William I to act as a buffer at France's Northern border. The southern region was incorporated in August 1814 with official unification finalised in March 1815. Although this unification was short-lived, with the succession of Belgium in 1831.

Newly independent the young Kingdom quickly set about the business of raising a new army to protect itself with. Raising a lot of infantry, and foot artillery, several units of horse artillery a transport battalion and four regiments of cavalry. Two regiments of heavy 'shock' cavalry and two light cavalry for reconnaissance and pursuit.

While there was no lack of volunteers, with veterans from the Napoleonic wars filling the ranks, weapons were in short supply. Naturally, significant material had been left by the French, but further orders for weapons were placed with the British, Belgium and Germany to arm the heavy cavalry, light cavalry, horse artillery and transport units.

This cumulated in three new sword designs for the Dutch cavalry, the m1814 No.3 (HC.3) for the heavy cavalry, the m1813 No.1 (LC.1) and the m1813 No.2 (LC.2) for the light cavalry, mounted artillery and transport units. While the HC.3 and the LC.2 were new models clearly inspired by earlier French designs. The m1813 No.1 was the British pattern 1796 light cavalry sabre, designed by John Gaspard Le Marchant.

The first order for these swords was placed directly from Britain and began to arrive by the end of 1813. Based on the markings on the swords in collections, many can be dated back to 1811, indicating that they came directly out of existing stocks to be sold to The Netherlands. It is possible that the speed of delivery was an attractive option as a 'stop-gap' measure while other swords were being produced.

Regardless, The Netherlands placed more orders for LC.1s between 1814 and 1819, but this time they turned to the sword makers John und Abm Schimmelbusch & Sohn, A Schimmelbusch & Co, Schnitzler & Kirschbaum and the Weyersberg brothers of Solingen.

In 1829 the LC.1 was officially replaced with the introduction of the Light Cavalry Sword No.3 (m1814 No.3) but many remained in service and were re-issued to the Mounted Jaegers who retained them as long as 1851.

In 1881 this sword along with hundreds like it were turned over from the Artillery Depot in Brielle to the Rijksmuseum and put on display in the hall of trophies in the Eastern Courtyard, there they remained until the end of the Second World War when they were cleaned and placed in storage.

This sword is marked along the back of the spin with I.Gill, believed to be John Gill (often people used the Latin version of their name, hence the I instead of the J). John Gill, a son of the famous Thomas Gill, took over the business when his father died in 1801. On the blade there is the Crown over 8 British ordinance stamp.

Further stamps include the Dutch Crown over V inspection stamps on the langet, furrell and scabbard drag. The crossguard has two unit markings, 100 on top of the knuckle bow for the original regimental sword number and J 365 under the quillion, added when the sword was re-issued to the Jaegers de Paard or 'Hunters on Horse'.

Unfortunately, the scabbard belongs to sword number J 43 and it is likely that this miss-match occurred when the museum collection was cleaned and placed into permanent storage.

Source:
‘Charge! Cavalry Sabre Sale, International sabres in Dutch service 1807 – 1840’, The Hague, Venduehuis, 2020.

Another British 1803 Pattern Sword for Officers of Grenadiers and Light Infantry. This one is by Prosser and has the initials W.W.B engraved into the guard and the top scabbard fitting. While we can never be sure it is the same gentleman, there is a William Walden Borme serving with the 10th Regiment of Foot, from 1794 to 1814:

• October 1794 joined as ensign (second Lieutenant).
• August 1795 promoted to Lieutenant by purchase.
• August 1804 promoted to Captain.
  
• June 1814 promoted to Major.

This type of sword is a unique attempt to solve the issue of providing maximum hand protection when in use while being less of an encumbrance when worn at the side. They came with varying degrees of decoration from plain oval guards with one or two folding branches to pierced guards or even a full collapsing basket.

On this sword, the two side branches fold out to offer plenty of space for the hand, but because of where the branches meet with the pommel, the sword is not suited to point work (like many basket hilts).

The ricasso is engraved with the makers name which reads:

    Cassaignard Fourbisseur Du Roi à Nantes

Or translated:

    Cassaignard, Cutler of the King in Nantes.

Cassaignard operated out of Nante from 1774 to 1812 as a Fourbisseur, an old French term for someone that finishes edged weapons, i.e. mounting hilts, decorating and polishing the blades. Being a port city, his mark in various forms appears on a lot of swords associated with Naval officers or Privateers. Due to the use of ‘Du Roi’ in the makers mark, we can be reasonably confident that this blade pre-dates the denouncement of King Louis XIV in 1792 when it became common practice to remove or deface the symbols of his reign.

The other decorations include the talismanic man in the moon, face in the sun and sword arm protruding from a cloud. These are typical of Solingen made blades, where Cassaignard likely purchased his stock from, and this combination of three items feature often on blades with his mark.

1796 Pattern Light Cavalry troopers' sabre by Thomas Gill:

Made by Thomas Gill sometime between 1796 and 1801 it is inscribed with his famous guarantee of quality: “Tho. Gill’s Warranted never to Fail” on the blade.

Thomas Gill (the second) was one of the best sword makers of his time and introduced the “Warranted” quality mark that was later picked up by many other sword makers of his period. With his passing, his sword making business went to John Gill, one of his sons and later Elizabeth Gill when John passed away.

This sabre is another one of those Georgian mystery swords that doesn’t quite conform to the rules modern day collectors like to apply to everything. Nominally it looks like a 1796 Pattern Light Cavalry officers’ sabre with a pipe-back blade.

A pipe-back blade is a style of blade that came into fashion in the very last years of the 18th Century. It is not known if the design originated in France or Britain, but it is likely that it is a modification of the T-cross section popular on the Kilij swords of the Ottoman Empire. By re-enforcing the blade with a bar of steel, or ‘pipe’ along the spine, it allows for a thinner, sharper blade.

While we see early examples of pipe-back swords, particularly amongst the officers of the light cavalry (although there are examples of heavy cavalry and infantry officer swords with them as well) it isn’t really until the 1810s that they came into any form of prominence. With the design becoming standard in later pattern swords.

Like many swords of the time, this one is un-marked, so it is impossible to determine its exact age. However small features like the lack of a yelman on the tip and the keyhole scabbard throat would roughly place it around 1810 – 1818.

Most of the pipe-back sabres can be confidently attributed to the officers’ branch of service by the type of hilt, length of blade or what scabbard they have. This sabre, however, has a steel stirrup hilt, which could be rifles or light cavalry, however its’ blade at 805 mm is long for a rifles officer while short for a cavalry officer. The leather scabbard is unsuited for mounted use, but regulation for a cavalry officers’ dress sword and typical for a rifles officer. Of course, there were other mounted services that were issued the 1796 Pattern light cavalry sabre, such as the mounted artillery and the soldiers of the baggage train. So it could have belonged to an officer of either service as well, and in a way such a sword would made sense for a mounted artillery officer, who would normally expect to do most of his actual fighting on foot from a set position and need to defend himself while his guns were deployed. In contrast to the light dragoons, who would fight mostly from horseback.

Ultimately, we are unlikely to ever know, but it is a quality sword showing the fine attention to detail the craftsmen of the era paid to their art to make a what is a fairly simple hilt stand out.