Spanish Cavalry or British Engineer?

[midelburgo]

The reason a Spanish officer could want to have a British Engineers hilt, is that in 1860 cavalry troopers got the so-called Prussian basket model, with a steel hilt.

There was not to be an oficial model for the officers with a steel basket until 1878, but it seems there existed pressures to exchange their brass perforated shells for steel hilts since the early 1870s. This period was one of unrest, with the dethroning of Queen Isabel in 1868, the proclamation of provisional government in 1870, a new king, Amadeo of Savoy in 1871-1873, republic in 1873-1874 and a new borbon king in 1875. No time to bother with the cavalry officers swords.

So it seems, several different solutions were adopted to fulfill the steel basket question. First, the non-regulation Pseudo-Roberts appeared (anatomical grip). Oldest I have seen dated 1872, the one here, has a new type of blade with a long back edge and is from 1876. This new blade also appeared with ciseled steel hilts, in 1876-1877, predecessors of the 1878 model. Often the old blades were kept, the second sword below has one from 1856, mounted in a 1878 hilt (what had been developed with a completely new blade), but also with the Pseudo-Robert hilts. I have also seen a couple of the old brass baskets that had been silvered over.

It also seems the adoption of the new 1878 model was not taken too seriously, what gave room to the socalled (non-regulation) true-Robert system, with an anatomical grip and a full tang, only from 1893.

A sword with a 1850 blade and a British Engineers steel basket would not be so much out of place in that mess.