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AN IMPORTANT GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE SABER

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
AN IMPORTANT GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE SABER
Auctions Imperial is pleased to announce our 2013 sale, to be held March 16 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Timonium, Maryland. Over 300 lots of choice antique arms and armor including armor, helmets, shields, swords, daggers, battleaxes, maces, halberds, matchlocks, flintlocks and percussion pieces will be offered. Our fine selection for 2013 includes broadswords, baskethilts, shamshirs, shashkas, palas, kindjals, khanjars, tulwars and spears, as well as chain mail and breastplates. This sale will also include important swords and daggers from the Greek War of Independence and the armor of the K...
An exceptional example of the type, the elaborate silver mounts superbly embossed and engraved in high relief throughout. The hilt with walrus grips with large, rolled pommel, the guard recurved and embellished with flowering vines. The locket with highly-detailed coat of arms of Greece, depicting the Palaiologos tetragrammic cross with its characteristic betas, and the laurel branches of the Philiki Etaireia, surmounted by the Greek crown, all above a stand of arms and an Orthodox chalice supported by a pair of crowned rampant lions and a shield engraved with the Russian characters S and D for Spyridon Destunis. The suspension bands with flowering vines in relief, likewise a pair of silver panels inlaid on either side of the scabbard, and the seam cover; the long chape elaborately embellished with the Greek coat of arms en suite with the locket. The fine silver baldric with large tassels intact. The heirloom blade moderately-curved and single-edged, forged of actively-patterned Ottoman wootz steel. Reputed to have been presented to Spyridon Destunis (1782-1848,) by the Philiki Etaireia. Destunis was an Ionian Greek educated at Moscow, a highly-regarded Russian diplomat, Philhellene and Greek patriot. He believed strongly in the importance of classical education, and translated Plutarch's Lives into Russian in 13 volumes. As a diplomat in Imperial Russian Foreign Service, he met and became friends with Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776-1831,) first leader of the newly-liberated Greece, who was supported by General Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843.) In 1818, Destunis was appointed Russian consul general in Smyrna, where he was also inducted into the Philiki Etaireia, the elite Greek secret society which conspired against the Ottomans and planned the War of Independence, together with Emmanuil Xanthos (1772-1852,) Athanasios Tsakalov (1788-1851,) and Alexandros Ypsilantis (1792-1828,) who became its leader in 1820. Destunis tirelessly exhorted Russia and other European states to rally to the Hellenic cause, to which end, he penned many articles and letters in a number of languages, which remain of great historical importance to scholars of Ottoman-Greek relations and the Revolution. He actively pursued philanthropic support for Greek war victims throughout his later years. Second quarter of the 19th century .One langet lacking, stable crack in grip. Overall length 95 cm. Condition II