[Hotspur]

Hi Jim,

The figure in wonder is a hippocanthus (also written as campe and campus), or sea horse and very much a French sword "in the style of", as are others depicted above. I will try to find the first empire example of a ship's transom decoration but am still plowing through old and misplaced image libraries (although I did get my drive loaded to this one). I do have another plate that was shared with descriptions as well but I am shamed not to remember the book offered (if not ideed the same text another had put up).

It had been described by a dealer as an American artillery officer sword via his seeing the pommel type and as described in Peterson. I took it as a dragoon de ville epee before I had it in hand and then sea horses came into it.

The practice of three swords for an officer was not (apparentlY) singular to French practices but the one I pictured fits those descriptions exactly. A dress, or about town eppe. A highly decorated parade sword and duty sword of plainer nature also work in a trio of emsemble.

I wonder if the term horse latitudes for the Atlantic is a purely French or British trait.

Cheers

Hotspur; lost my hydraulics Friday and need to go chat up my mechanic

Edit for those two book plates and I'm unsure who the author is or the book title. It is firgure 9 that lists them as "a l'anglaise"