A strongly curved Flank Officer's sword

[Belgian1]

Originally Posted by RobertGuy

Never underestimate the influence of fashion on military thinking. The highly curved swords seem to have been made merely to impress the ladies. Flank officers usually held themselves above ordinary mortals and the chance to ape the flashy light cavalry when out riding or walking around town was simply irresistible. Add to that the unpopularity of the 1796 infantry sword and you have a strong movement for change. As fighting blades, they were not good. The official 1803 fared slightly better but had been produced to try and stop the use of exotically curved blades by young flank officers. While officers were usually mounted going to and from the battle they usually fought on foot. A couple of pics, standard 1803 and a more exotic flank officers sword.

Many thanks RobertGuy for your pertinent comment. Yes indeed I had already hear about this explanation over a possible "fashion influence". But yet, this type of sword has been worn in battle and I have doubts about its sole function to influence the ladies. This would have been a dangerous suicidal fashion, a kind of "song of the swan ...". I think, rather, that this style of saber was intended to show his membership of an elite fighting troop and to be identified directly and thus get the laurels and merits of the unit with of course, the best intentions of the young ladies. But above all, it would be an object of "social" distinction, before the regulation, at the time when the officers of certain combat units could assert their whims with this type of fantasy. Like the swords of the officers of the "60th Foot" who had, by caprice, asked and obtained the autorization to have , an gilded brass D shape guard on their Pattern 1796 or the entier gilded brass handle and scabbard of the "Duke of Cumberland's Sharpshooters Rifle Unit". It also said, that this type of strongly curved blade are a variant of an ephemeral Pattern 1799....
But this topic deserves to be the subject of historical research because I believe that we are not the only ones to want to find a "official military" answer of historical source