18th century hanger with possible naval connections

[M ELEY]

Here we have an interesting hanger, ca. 1750-90 period, German made judging from examples in Neumann's with similar hilt elements. When I first bid on the piece, I assumed it was a knockoff of the French m1767 Grenadier pattern. When it came in the mail, however, I saw that it predated that model. I was most shocked by the quality of the watered steel spear tip blade so much like a cutlass. I was also intrigued by the markings on the brass guard. They read 'RX.2' and 'No.45'. They are etched into the brass, not stamped as typical issued government types are.

I am aware some early German blades sometimes came with etched marks, but they were usually long chains of numbers and letters. Likewise, the RX mark was curiously short, had a dotted period in front of the numeral. This leads me to believe that this marking is a rack number, as in Rack #2. Perhaps I'm looking too deeply at this, but I have been unable to see any other swords bearing such a marking. If it were a string of numbers, I'd leave it alone.

Then there are the subtle hints that it might be a cutlass. I haven't been able to find any other German sword of the period with an open hilt like mine. I also looked through numerous books, web sites, and about 20 years worth of auction catalogs for a match, to no avail. I researched Saxon sidearms, pioneer swords, French grenadiere types, briquettes, etc, with no match. Most of the Germanic swords from this time period with similar hilt elements (exact shape grip, knuckle bow with acute angles, droopy quillon, etc) had much more elaborate, barred heavy hilts. This makes me suspect it was made in a small quantity for private purchase for a merchantman. Other clues include the short 22" cutlass type blade with flat back, false edge, simple brass hilt popular with naval pieces and the already mentioned fact that it doesn't match any of the other types from the period.

Now, IF the 'RX' stands for rack number, we can try to do a little deducing, i.e. guessing! Starting with 'No.45', it would need to be a country that uses that abbreviation. I know Germany does, the word number being nummer, I believe. France likewise does and of course, Great Britain and the U.S. If RX stands for 'rack', we can surmise that the country of origin would need to have the word 'rack' of a similar spelling and pronouncement. Once again, the UK and the US. The French word for rack is grille, so no match. The German word isn't even close. The Dutch word for rack is rek and the Danish word for rack is rack. Both of these countries followed the German style of weapons and both have privateering in their history. As a matter of fact, the Danish m.1801 naval sword has the exact same style blade and a very similar profiled brass hilt.