Thanks Nando! In looking at that device in the guard, I think it quite likely this is probably a grenadier officers, and quite honestly I havent seen this type device before in these. Can we get a better shot of it?
These swords ended up being copied by the French in a relatively strange turn in cross diffusion, and were colloquially termed ' l'Anglaise'. In America, in thier typical fascination with the French military fashion adopted these hilts during the 'Federal' period of neoclassicism in the 1810-20s, and the reeded ivory grips carried forward into swords used up to the Civil War.
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