It is not ethnographic but I am almost sure you will find it interesting and some people here will help to identify it.
It is a society sword, but we don’t know few things.
1. What society?
2. When it was made?
3. Does it carry special meanings?
The hilt is cast bronze. The scabbard is wood covered by black sharkskin leather and with engraved bronze, tip is missing.
The blade has nothing to do with society swords we see often. It is a real fighting blade of smalsword. It has diamond cross section (raised rib) with two wide fullers. It is hand forged and has some marks both sides.
There is an inscription on the back side of the scabbard with fine lettering in French:
“Le chevalier +F+ Jean Paleologus grand prieur de Grece … de Thrace commandeur de Corinthe …. tres cher frere et ami chevalier Jean Jaques Watts"
What is +F+ for?
Paleologus was the family name of the last Byzantine emperors and there are still people who claim them as ancestors.
Watts could be the John James Watts, an English man, one of the persons who revived the Order of the Hospital of Saint-John of Jerusalem in Britain back in 1857.
There are few maltese crosses on the sword so I assume that the society could be the Order of Malta. But I am not sure.
Also I cannot identify the other insignia, the marks on the blade and the four letters on the hilt
P D E P.
Anyone can help? Please
