Hirshfanger bayonet

[Ron Anderson]

Here is another item in my collection with a fair degree of mystery associated with it.

I believe this is a hirshfanger bayonet. That is about all I know and I assume that this item hails from one of the German states in the 19th century, or from another Northern European country (Scandinavian?).

It has an interesting canvas covering to the scabbard, and a matching frog. This is old and dirty. It has layers of age to it and looks to me like the covering was created to protect the scabbard while out in the rain or the woods. Underneath the canvas covering is the scabbard. One can actually feel the mouth and chape and the leather of the scabbard and I can only surmise that having been protected for so long by the canvas it is in excellent, possibly mint, condition.

The spring on the locking mechanism appears to be missing. Otherwise, with the exception of small nicks on the blade, this bayonet is in extremely nice order.

I'm going to guess this item was used for hunting, and is not military. But are these not by nature military?

There is one marking on the blade, pictured here.

This seems to be rare and recently an item like this, without a scabbard, sold on eBay for an awful lot more than I paid.

Does anybody here have a better idea about this particular "hirshfanger bayonet". ie Does anybody know the pattern, origins, etc?

Also, it's a great opportunity for someone to expand on how these interesting sidearms developed. I for one would be very interested to know.

Regards
Ron