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.

[Jim McDougall]

From "Hunting Weapons" Howard Blackmore, 1971, p.42;

Discussing the magical signs and numbers often occurring on hunting sword blades "..most of these magical signs appear on hunting swords which originated in Germany or which were used in Germany".

The running wolf is noted as a mark of quality, however , "...in fighting and hunting the swordsman often needed more than confidence in his blade. It had to possess some mystical quality to spur him on to greater deeds or to bring him luck. On many hunting sword blades, therefore, magical signs or numbers are engraved for this purpose"

On p.42 (Blackmore op. cit.) it is noted "... in the second half of the 18th c. decoration on the blade was often confined to a band of interlaced strapwork with some sprays of foliage or martial trophies".


The running wolf with ubiquitous magical number 1414 is seen as among the many such themes and devices on blades 17th through 18th c.

This saber with unusual cavalry length blade and staghorn grip which is cleft at pommel suggests the kind of oriental influences favored by Pandour units of Maria Theresa forces mid 18th c. These were auxiliary units which acted independently with military forces acting as skirmishers as well as foragers which of course included hunting. Their dual purpose in both combat cases as well as hunting rather brings together the character of this unusual form.

Note the Royal cypher on the blade, the three 'button' grips .
Interestingly it seems that the conventions of magic markings and numbers extended from hunting swords into the fighting swords of military officers, most notably the flamboyant hussars. These kinds of magically imbued and fashionable baroque designs became widely copied throughout Europe and England in the mid 18th into 19th c.

It stands to reason that reciprocally, the martial associations of an officer would extend to the hunting weapons he would use. The hunt was not a lightly taken sport, and there were notable and profound dangers which often in degree equaled combat.