Description:
Sword with a 32" epee blade, which according to the 2003 sale catalogue is purported to have belonged to Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Maxwell (1733-1799); however, there is no documentation for this provenance. After the bayonet appeared in the early 17th century, the importance of the infantry sword began to decline steadily; the bayonet became standardized in European armies at the beginning of the 18th century, and adoption in America came much later. Before the Revolution, the British had supplied many of its standard British infantry swords of 1742 and 1751 to America to be issued to the colonial troops to fight against the French. When the Revolution started, colonial soldiers were asked to bring swords such as those issued earlier by the British as well as shoulder arms; as the war continued, the Americans gradually acquired a quantity of other swords from the French and Dutch to issue to its soldiers. This sword has features found on contemporary British and French swords; Warren Moore shows a 1742 British infantry sword with a similar wooden grip; a 1750 French infantry sword which has a similarly-shaped handle; and an almost identically shaped, circa 1765 brass-hilted small sword which he identifies as probably American. Moore also shows 1754 and circa 1760 English swords with 32" blades such as this sword, and the circa 1750 French infantry sword with a 29" blade. The French later used a 27" blade not unlike the British infantry sword, and by 1767, a 23" slightly curved single-edged blade. This sword is unmarked, and the epee blade could have been supplied by a private supplier as part of a lot of blanks to which handles were applied. The sword has a flattened brass pommel buttom on the ovoid-shaped pommel; two brass ferrules decorated with a twisted rope design at both ends of the turned, smooth wooden grip, which is missing its original wire braid; and plain brass knuckle bow, quillon, pas d'anes (fingerings), and double clamshell guard. The three-edged, triangular blade has a deep blood channel on one side, and a dark brown patina and occasional pitting. It was probably made in England or France.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2003.51.4 |
