British cutlass early 19th .

[Jim McDougall]

During the Napoleonic wars, ending in 1815 with Napoleons defeat at Waterloo, the British Royal Navy had been using the 'figure 8' pattern hilt cutlass of 1804 pattern with a straight blade. With the introduction of a curved blade cutlass in the American navy, the British decided to follow suit by adding a 'falchion' blade which of course a heavy curved blade....what we normally think of as a cutlass.

In 1814 a new pattern was suggested with such a blade, of 24.5", and using the old 1804 type hilt with gunmaker/cutlers Tatham & Egg. It is unclear how many were produced, but issuance must have been extremely limited as according to the noted authorities on naval arms Annis & May; Gilkerson and Comfort......the 1814 pattern is one of the rarest...with less than 12 known to survive. ...Gilkerson says only 3.

Naturally, this can only be an abstract number arrived at through argument of silence, as no finite records are known, as suggested with comments by these authorities.

Recently I acquired this example, in very poor condition of blade but the markings GR crowned, and the numerals 27 nearer the forte.
In Gilkerson (p.88) the top example of lower plate shows machete illustrated in drawing with blade having these marks and that Solingen was producing blades of this type into mid 1800s.

In Great Britain, after the end of the Napoleonic wars, and the short career of the M1814 cutlass, there was no cutlass production 1816-1841.

What is unusual with this interesting cutlass (with obviously replaced grip), is that it is one of these Solingen type blades with the same marking configuration, however the blade itself not only has the same look as this example, but the length 24.5" is exact to the M1814.

With this hilting, either there were leftover blades from the M1814 in German holding, which might have found their way to private purchase. Naturally captains supplying arms on private vessels bought what was available.
Or this blade MIGHT have been taken from a M1814 cutlass circulating in the trade networks or perhaps entering privateer context perhaps in the Atlantic theater to the South Seas active 1810- into 1830s.