Karabela - the nicest you have seen
 

I've been offered that karabela (the seller is a aquitance of mine).

Descriptiom (from the seller):
A beautifull set from Bahtiany family - Hungary.
Collar (for attaching the "knightly" mantle) is from silver with gold platings. With 6 sweetwater pearls, 15 emeralds 6ct and 18 rubbies 6ct.
The sword belt is also silver with gold platings. With 6 sweetwater pearls, 15 emeralds 6ct and 18 rubbies 6ct.
Silver engraved spurs.
24 silver buttons with 24 rubbies 3ct. - 19mm
14 silver buttons with 14 rubbies 3ct. - 22mm
13 silver buttons with 13 rubbies 3ct - 26mm

The hilt and the scabbard are silver mounted and gold plated, with 19 rubbies 2,2 ct and 10 emeralds ca. 2ct.

Almost 2kg of silver in this set.

The blade (still waiting for pictures of the blade) bears the inscription "Frincia"

To me seems Polish, however, maybe the crests would tell the difference.

PM me how much you would pay for that.

Any comments?

That certainly is a very nice sword. I would think that the price is in grands.

It is worth it!!!!!
Am I seeing an eagle on the scabbard?
My guess it is Croatian/Hungarian/Transylvanian rather than Polish: far too rich.

I don't think that it is an eagle. To me it looks like the Christian symbol of Pelican in her piety. (photo for reference)
Could be a sword of a Knight of an Order.

Roman Catholic order of the swan? Prussian?

The bird on the chain does look like she is feeding young from her own blood.
I could not get any very good info in a google search "order of the pelican"

There is an Order of the Swan, Brandenburgischer Schwanenorden, but the design of the bird is quite different from the one on the sword. The chain of this order looks like this.
I have not heard of any order of the pelican, but the symbol might be used by any Christian order, it is very common in Christian graphical representation.

Must be from a Christian Knights Order. The colours of the stones are seen in the Hungarian flag?

It looks that my friend misspleled the family name... it is not Bahtiany but rather Batthyány.

From Wikipedia: Batthyány is the name of an old distinguished Hungarian Magnate family.They were first mentioned in documents in 1398 and had their ancestral seat in Güssing in the Austrian region Burgenland since 1522. In 1570, Balthasar Batthyány transformed the seat of the family, Güssing, into the center of protestantism in the region. His descendant however, Adam Batthyány (* 1610, † 1659) was catholic and founded a Franciscan monastery in Güssing (in the south of the present-day Burgenland). Lajos Batthyány became the first Prime Minister of Hungary during the revolution of 1848 and was executed in Pest in 1849. After 1945 the Batthyány family was largely expropriated in the then socialist countries, although they kept some important property in the Burgenland, Austria. They had also properties near the city of Maribor (Slovenia).

And there is their coat of arms... It is a swan :) looks my friend was right attributing that sword to that precise noble family and the colour of the jewels as Tim stated indeed represents the hungarian flag. I guess that it was confiscated and kept some 60 years ago by some yugoslav communist officer or aktivist.

It seems that the guy on the photo below is wearing a verry similar collar, and BTW that is not a knightly order collar, it is a mantle bearer.

What about the age? I would think about 1849 looking at the nationalistic hungarian colors on it :confused:

The price is faaar above my current finance situation. If anybody is interested I can arrange a meeting.

Ehm.. look at the sword that guy is bearing.... :eek: Is it possible that it is the same sword?

Dont think so, in my oppinion the painting is older than the sword. The style rocaille elements on the hilt are more likely mid of 18th century.
But the attribution to the Batthyány family is most likely, the coat of arms gives the clue, but it is still a pelican, not a swan... ;)
Definitely a sword for a museum collection!

Very handsome sword, but not Polish and certainly not a karabela type. This is Hungarian Revival work of the 1850s-1890s. It represents an artistic approach on the part of ethnic Hungarians to react to Austrian dominance at the Austro-Hungarian Court.

Ham

And here is the blade.

A most beautiful blade! I love to see such european motifs.

A sumptuous sword! I would love to have it but would not be willing to sell my car for it.
If I were a descendant of the family... that's a different ballgame: Mark once told us a fascinating story about his hunt for the sword of his great-great-grandfather (a couple more "greats"?)
It is either a museum piece or a family heiloom. Anything else is not justified, IMHO.