Description:
Sword with a silver hilt with the touchmark "B B" in a rectangle, ivory handle, and steel blade. The silver hilt has the applied seal of Massachusetts on one side and the engraved initials "W.M." on the other. The blade is etched with a crest with a bent arm holding a sword and the inscription "For My Country", and a stylized design of crossed arrows, drum, ribbon, etc. and gilded. The sword was sold to HD by the dealers Carl and Celia Jacobs as made by Benjamin Bunker (1751-1842) of Nantucket. Mass. However, according to a August 17, 1966 letter in the file from Martha Gandy Fales, co-author with Henry N. Flynt of "The Heritage Foundation Collection of Silver" (1968), to Harold Peterson, then Chief Curator in the National Park, she expressed concern about the sword's authenticity; she wanted his opinion since she and Flynt wanted to include this sword their book. She wrote: "...I have some doubts about whether the counter-guard on which it [the mark] appears is actually original to the sword. It does not fit snugly around the sword blade or handle and it bears engraved initials on one side which seem spurious to me and on the other side an applied insignia of the Mass. state seal, which I would have thought was a feature used at a period later than that in which Bunker was working, even though Bunker lived to be 91." Peterson replied: "I, too, feel that the sword with the Massachusetts arms is spurious. It is either the same specimen or very similar to one I looked at several years ago when it was offered to Winterthur. Later it appeared in an advertisement in "Antiques" magazine with an illustration. These swords come from the hand of a faker in New Hampshire. Normally he starts with genuine pieces, but he cannot seem to resist "improving them with the addition of various marks, initials and little items like the Massachusetts coat of arms. Also for some reason or other, he almost always replaces the original grip with a poorly formed grip of ivory. I have handled three of his swords now and have heard that he has also done silver gorgets. In the old days he used to confine himself to firearms but apparently silver has now become a temptation."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+65.211 |
