Basket hilted swords

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Cathey

Hi Ibrahiim al Balooshi

I thought you may have solved this mystery until I looked at the dates Hounslow was in business. I have gone through a few articles on the Hounslow makers and whilst two of these show pictures of the fox with the H and describe this as an authentic Hounslow mark, there is no historical link in the body of the articles to support this or link it with a particular maker.

It appears Hounslow opened for business in 1620 and ceased manufacturing in 1660, which in some cases is earlier than a number of blades I have seen that bear this particular mark.

One explanation might be that a family that left the Hounslow business continued to use the mark into the 1700’s. Time wise the Harvey family remain a better fit for the dates of swords bearing this variation on the fox mark which we do know they used. Also apart from the missing S, the fox mark is virtually identical to the one used by Harvey.

If we could find a link between the Harvey’s and Hounslow then we might be on to something.

Cheers Cathey

Cathey, like you I was pretty excited with Ibrahiim's suggestion on the 'H' possibly representing Hounslow!
I also looked back into material on Hounslow, and found that this would not have corresponded with contemporary Hounslow practices in markings.
While for a time I thought that Hounslow did not use the 'wolf' or 'fox' markings, I found contrary evidence in that they did indeed use the familiar running wolf chiseled mark.

Since Hounslow had ceased by the 1660s, it does not seem that such practice would accede into the Harvey timeline, nor would the smiths of Hounslow have used the contrary figure of a noticeably tailed fox as used by the Harvey's. I have personally always felt that the fox used by the Harveys was perhaps a 'nod' to the Hounslow smiths in a rather commemorative sense, as the reputation certainly would remain known then.

Thank you so much, as always, for the wonderful examples you continue to post here, and for keeping this thread going!!

Fernando, excellent suggestion on the compellingly plausible interpretation of SOLIDEO GLORIA . Often the literal interpretation of words, terms and phrases can be rather difficult to understand properly in the mindset of our times, but such dimensional placement into the context and times of the weapon really makes a difference!