Description:
Horseman's saber with a brass stirrup-type hilt with a cherry grip with a carved spiral channel that was intended to have a tightly twisted double strand of brass wire, which is marked "I * SNOW" for Jeremiah Snow III (1735-1803), a goldsmith, whitesmith, and sword cutler on the east side of the Connecticut River in Springfield. Working in both gold and silver, Snow specialized in the smaller, cheaper items of his trade such as spoons and jewelry. However, the swords manufactured by Snow are of exceptional quality for the period, and this horseman's saber offers a graceful and functionally proper expression of the swordmaker's art. The blade itself is Spanish-made and was purchased in the West Indies by Connecticut River Valley merchants. These blades were a common commodity thoughout most of the colonies, even though their early traffic was somewhat illegal, and were shipped in quantity to the West Indies well into the 19th century. This style of saber employed the tri-fullered blade (three grooves along its length), so common on American edge weapons of the period, normally measuring about 33" with a cleaver-like point. Jeremiah Snow was a colonial silversmith who occasionally produced at least two varieties of swords between 1760 and 1783, an officer's short saber and a horseman's saber (Bezdek, American Swords and Sword Makers, p. 198). Horseman sabers made by Snow feature a distinctive brass stirrup hilt and wooden grip (usually cherry) having a forward slanting diagonal incised ring pattern for the wire wrapping. Snow utilized mostly triple-fullered blades of Spanish origin from the Cuban trade (Mowbray: 1979). Locally made single-fuller blades are also recognized as having been made by Snow. Snow's touchmark appearing as I.SNOW. in a rectangular cartouche is typically, but not always, found stamped into the brass counterguard. The identical mark is also found in silver tableware items made by Jeremiah Snow. His son, Jeremiah Snow, Jr. (1764-bef 1829), also worked as a silversmith in Amherst, Mass. using a nearly identical touchmark.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+97.12 |
