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Post by ilvalto on Jul 10, 2024 18:09:48 GMT
Hi folks was hoping I could get your opinion or something. I received delivery of few french sabres I i got at auction few weeks ago, and they're all on the 1822 cavalry/artillery kind. one is a cavalry troop, and that's fine, but the other 3 should be artillery officers sword. of these 3, one seems an outlier - pls see picture, the one in the middle is the one I have more doubts. blade is not marked, the only thing vaguely resembling a marking are barely visible initials. the blade seems very thin compared with the other 2 artillery sword (and absolutely tiny vs the cavalry troop one), despire being the righht lenght and having the secondary fueller in the right place. the guard/handle also seems thinner/slightly smaller compared to the other two. what seems particularly off are the floral engravings on the guard, especially the one on the inside seem barely "engraved", while one the other 2 sabres the'yre definitely more "3rd". so here's my question..what am I looking at here? is this an old copy of an artillery officer sword, or something else? i.e. an export model/private purchase/ WW1 period late issue..? any opinion? I know these have had a long life and been copied widely, so I am really not sure what I'm looking at here... thanks
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Post by pellius on Jul 10, 2024 18:37:06 GMT
1822’s. Some of my very favorites! Nice acquisitions you have there.
The artillery version of this model was designated as an 1829, and had only a single knucklebow / D guard. It also had a single fuller, unlike the “Montmorency” double fuller blades of the 1822 heavy and light.
The knucklebow plus two bars puts all of these in the light cavalry category. The 1822 heavy cav had a knucklebow plus three bars.
The 1822 light cav was used and copied throughout Europe and the Americas for the better part of a century. However, I don’t know of any non-French users that copied the floral markings.
As I understand it, the officer versions, denoted by the floral engraving and middle-swell grip, were not always strictly regulated, and private officer purchases could deviate a bit from the standard pattern. They also often were not inspected or marked as the trooper versions were.
From the photos, I don’t see any major red flags. As always, though, I’m not an expert.
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