A French small sword

[fernando]

After gathering and disposing off a couple items here and there since the seventies, this is the first piece i decided to keep, with intentions to start collecting antique weapons, circa 1990. However for quite a few years i couldn't identify it; just kept it because i saw it had some age and i found it charming. One day, with the coming of Internet and with the help of specialist Jean Binck, i found out it was a French Fireman's officer sword, from the period of Louis Phillipe (1840). I wouldn't make it alone, as i wasn't browsing with the right key, for i would never guess that in those days firemen were militarized forces (at least in France).
This pattern is called Model 1817 à ciselure and has a blade 30 1/2" long.
A pitty it has no scabbard; the sword itself is in an impecable condition.
Jean Binck was kind enough to email me a page of a book by a famous French illustrator, where we can see my specimen "on the field".
Fernando