As Kisak has observed, this sword appears to be a fraternal type sword of the 19th century. Actually I have discussed this sword with Tom in some degree already, and asked him to post it here as I would like to initiate some interest in this very esoteric area of collecting.
The sword hilt itself is of the general form that seems to have derived from military swords of the Civil War, in this case, the U.S. M1840 NCO sword, which had nearly identical hilt with knights head pommel, same style crossguard and fluted ivory grips. The Ames Sword co., who produced these, went into the production of the fraternal and Masonic style swords that developed from them in the years after the war. In addition to the well established Masonic groups and fraternal groups, there were many post military regimental organizations and patriotic groups.
In a phone conversation today with Mr. Joe Marino, one of the authors of the comprehensive book "The American Fraternal Sword" (2008), we discussed this particular acronym, which does not correspond to any of the known groups catalogued thus far. In years of research, he and his co-authors compiled the collections and data that reflect the amazing numbers of these types of groups.
It is known that outfitting companies and producers of regalia interchanged these almost universal hilt components, sich as the knights head pommel, crossguard and so on. The blades were often imported, such as this Solingen blade from latter 19th c.
It would seem that the most likely means of discovering the title of the group indicated by this acronym, D.O.S.R. may come from research in local history of the area where this was found. Perhaps this was a preliminary title for a group later known under another title. As suggestions for the words, possibly something like democratic order of the sons of the revolution or to that effect. There seem to have been many similar titles.
One of the key producers of fraternal type swords was the Frank Henderson Co. of Kalamazoo, Michigan from 1850-through 1893, when they began working with the Ames Co. This illustrates the possibility of using Ames components from the militia and non commissioned officers swords.
While these swords have often been considerably disregarded as they are clearly ceremonial and costume elements rather than weapons, they have developed a distinct sector of thier own in collecting with their fascinating associations in Americana. One of the foremost authorities on Americana, Mr. Norm Flayderman, wrote the foreward in Mr. Marino's book, probably one of the most stellar endorsements for anyone studying this field.
We'll continue researching!!!
Welcome to our forum Tom! and thank you for posting this!!
All very best regards,
Jim
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