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French Trophies of War captured by Sir David Milne A senior French naval officer's sabre and scab...

Currency:GBP Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,000.00 GBP
French Trophies of War captured by Sir David Milne A senior French naval officer's sabre and scab...
French Trophies of War captured by Sir David Milne A senior French naval officer's sabre and scabbard, circa 1800, with a decorated stirrup-hilt of ormolu, the hilt à l'allemande, a curved blade , having a clipped point and a false edge 8 1/4" (21cm) long, and a wood-lined, brass scabbard with embossed decoration; the hilt consists of a reinforced pommel stepped forward of the hand, the flat pommel cap decorated with a cast and chiselled motif of concentric petals, a stirrup knucklebow decorated with cast and chiselled laurel leaves and berries and having a central oblong panel containing a cast and chiselled floral motif, a plain, fluted quillon with acanthus-leaf terminal, oval langets cast and chiselled with Medusa heads in high relief and an ogee, leaf-shaped, reinforce at the junction of the quillon and knucklebow; the grip is bound in silver wire, now loose; the blade is of sabre form, falsely damascened and decorated on either side near the forte with inlaid gold panels of pseudo-Islamic script; the scabbard is embossed in high relief on its outer side with Classical and martial trophies and plain panels, its inner side is plain and polished, with a single martial trophy and it has two loose suspension rings; the steel chape has been removed and the scabbard is slightly dented; and a senior French naval officer's waistbelt c.1800, in black or very dark blue leather 2 1/2" (6.7 cm) wide, embroidered in gold wire with a serpentine branch of laurel, with leaves and berries, the branch flanked by two lines of gold wire embroidery, with two sword slings attached, each 1 1/4" (3cm) wide, the swivels and buckles now absent; the belt has a rectangular ormolu plate, 3 1/2"x 4" (8.6cm x 10.2cm), with an engraved serpentine border of acanthus leaves and stars and a polished centre on which is mounted a martial trophy within an arc of laurel sprays; the plate is backed with buff chamois leather bearing a faded and illegible inscription in ink 33 3/4" (85.75cm) long Sabres with hilts of this style - identifiable by the form of the stepped and reinforced pommel and the langets - are derived from sabres carried by hussars in the army of the Austrian empire in the mid-18th century: as such, this hilt type is known as à l'allemande in France. Although non-regulation, sabres such as this were popular with senior officers of the staff and of light cavalry in the French army during the 1790s and this specimen is of the de luxe style, examples of which are recorded as having emanated from the famous Versailles manufacture of Nicolas-Noël Boutet. French naval officers of the period 1792-1814 were ordered to carry sabres when on board ship, reserving their épées for shore duties, and a sabre of similar form is shown in a portrait of Capitaine-de-frégate Jean-Jacques Magendie, attributed to Jean-Baptiste Wicar and painted in Naples in 1802 (Neptunia, no. 145, 1982). During the 1790s, French naval officers also tended to wear breeches and "Hessian" boots when on board ship - a fashion similar to the regulation dress for hussars - so their adoption of "hussar" sabres as fighting weapons may follow from this practice. It is likely, therefore, that this sabre was one of those surrendered to Milne by a French ship's captain. Similar sabres have appeared in auction in recent years (Sotheby's "The Alexander Davison Collection", 21st October 2002, lot 84, and Damoisy, Guizzetti et Collet, Reims, 20th November 2000, lot 149).
£5,000-7,000