Victorian Wall Decoration?

Robert · 27th January 2009, 04:37 AM

I was ask to post some pictures of this sword in another thread in the ethnographic forum but thought it would be better here. I have posted this once before but did not get any response so now that we have this forum I thought I'd try again. To begin with when I bought this it was covered in layer after layer of old aluminium or silver paint and under that alot of rust. The woman who owned this was in her 80s when I bought it had let her children use in in school plays and grand children carry it around on Halloween. The wooden grip was so dried out that I put a wood preservative on it (I hope this was not a mistake) to help keep it from getting any worse and cleaned off as much rust as I was comfortable with. Her story was that this was brought back from the Philippines after the Spanish American War with other edged weapons (including one with a long wavy blade as she described it) by her uncle but she had already sold the others when I bought this one. There is engraving on the ferrels and the pommel that look a lot like the engraving on the silver hilted Philippine dagger that I posted on the forum awhile back. The blade is what I would describe as hollow ground it 39-5/8 inches long, 3/8 inches thick at its thickest point and 1-13/16 inches wide at its widest point. The blade is not exactly what I would call sharp but not dull either. The hilt is 9-1/2 inches long and the sword weighs in at 3 lbs 5-1/2 ounces. I was told by someone that it could have been made by Ernst Schmidt. If anyone has any thoughts on this piece please post them as I have been trying to identify it for more than a couple of years with little luck. The blade is not as shiny as it looks in the pictures. Thank you for any help offered.

Robert

27th January 2009, 04:37 AM	#1
Robert EAAF Staff Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Centerville, Kansas Posts: 2,196	Victorian Wall Decoration? I was ask to post some pictures of this sword in another thread in the ethnographic forum but thought it would be better here. I have posted this once before but did not get any response so now that we have this forum I thought I'd try again. To begin with when I bought this it was covered in layer after layer of old aluminium or silver paint and under that alot of rust. The woman who owned this was in her 80s when I bought it had let her children use in in school plays and grand children carry it around on Halloween. The wooden grip was so dried out that I put a wood preservative on it (I hope this was not a mistake) to help keep it from getting any worse and cleaned off as much rust as I was comfortable with. Her story was that this was brought back from the Philippines after the Spanish American War with other edged weapons (including one with a long wavy blade as she described it) by her uncle but she had already sold the others when I bought this one. There is engraving on the ferrels and the pommel that look a lot like the engraving on the silver hilted Philippine dagger that I posted on the forum awhile back. The blade is what I would describe as hollow ground it 39-5/8 inches long, 3/8 inches thick at its thickest point and 1-13/16 inches wide at its widest point. The blade is not exactly what I would call sharp but not dull either. The hilt is 9-1/2 inches long and the sword weighs in at 3 lbs 5-1/2 ounces. I was told by someone that it could have been made by Ernst Schmidt. If anyone has any thoughts on this piece please post them as I have been trying to identify it for more than a couple of years with little luck. The blade is not as shiny as it looks in the pictures. Thank you for any help offered. Robert Attached Images Last edited by Robert Coleman; 27th January 2009 at 07:01 AM.