Hunting Sword

[Jim McDougall]

Here is one with ivory? grip and notable three button rivet motif. Blade is the heavy straight form, do not have length presently.
The open guard seems unusual......18th c?

For some reason I have always felt this was naval officers sidearm late 18th, probably British, but the actual hunting intent was not discounted.
As officers were of course notable 'of station' in civilian status, their participation in 'the hunt' would have been part of the social expectations.

The hunt was in this convention a fashionable event, and ones weapons reflected such fashions, so a bit of 'showing off' was of course expected.

I wanted to include detail toward the use of 'hunting swords' as used by military officers with the noted hanger of Capt. John Benbow who was in the merchant navy then achieved high rank in the Royal Navy 1680s-1702. His command and repute in the West Indies' notoriety was noted later in literature as the name of the Inn told by Robert Louis Stevenson in "Treasure Island".
The pages illustrated from "Naval Swords" P.G.W.Annis ,1970 show the staghorn hunting hanger which served as his sidearm late 17th c.