Hi Peter, thank you so much for the reply!
I have tried to contact museums before and generally have little to no luck. I will share, as a gift to the forum for all the help I have received so immediately, one of the rarest or most unusual things I possess, an extremely unusual Italian 1855 blade. I had won it from Czernys and reached out to multiple Italian museums for any advice but never received any feedback. It is, in all dimensional measurements, almost perfectly 1.5x the size of a standard 1855. It has a 121cm blade that is ~45mm wide and about 12-13mm thick. It weighs around 2150 grams, or about 4.8lbs. Made by a Solingen blade factory like most Italian blades were. It is engraved, not acid etched, but that is common for a lot of Italian swords as well. The sword featured for comparison is a slightly irregular 1855 with an 84cm blade more in an Anglo-Austrian type of grind. The sword has been heat treated and there is a nice spring tempter to it. It so far is my ultimate Mystery Sword to uncover. I am tempted to commission a proportional guard, grip, and backstrap/pommel, albeit grips were usually ebony and the cost would be high. The other thing I have long been tempted to do is extend the tang another 5-8cm out, still have a grip made, but have a complex hilt made and have the mother of all "swiss sabres." Just as a physical piece of steel, the length and thickness of the blade is so massive you could make multiple regular sized swords from it.
Apologies, that became off topic quite quickly, I simply wanted to share an example of one I have attempted to research via museum previously that so far has no results. I will go ahead and begin to research various museums alongside potential domestic (US) academics that may have a focus in this area as well. Should I find any further information I will be sure to let you know. I have loved finding other unusual cross-cultural swords from older threads, the Tulwar with the hybrid tulwar/gothic hilt with an elephant where the VR Cypher would go has been one of the coolest damned swords I have ever seen. It is quite sad how we can find notes and drawings in Wilkinson Patterns & Blade Rubs on all manner of specially made swords for kings and foreign armies, brief descriptors on unusual blades or experimental hilts, but so little of it survives through today. I can only hope that there are others hidden away in private collections that may one day be cataloged and photographed for public knowledge.
I am still on double secret probation and my replies do need to be reviewed first before posting, but I will either link to the thread you mentioned, or copy the text and images over there. Most of my British and French collection so far has been focused on 2 things. #1 is simply to posses at least 1 of every standard regulation pattern (albeit the nicer options) just as a baseline. #2, like the sword that is the focus of this thread, is to find the unusual items. I am quite fond of patent solid hilts. I am well aware of the claims of them being "extra" durable is likely marketing, but in a way that is hard to explain online, the extra mass in the hand and a wider and thicker blade at the ricasso (not always, I've 2 infantry patent hilts and 1 cavalry patent hilt that have wider but thinner blades at the ricasso) allows for a cutler to shape the feeling of the sword with a greater degree of freedom. And THAT is why they are better, in my opinion. They feel livelier in the hand. Regardless, I have been pushing to find non-regulation sabres, especially officer sabres, for my own niche focus. The French, like I mentioned in the other British sword thread, had some truly wonderful designs that pre-date the 1882 pattern infantry sword. The massive one I linked, with a flattened diamond 950x35x8mm blade is my favorite handling sword I own. The balance of it is sublime in the hand, it feels regal, like a knight's lance. I am attempting to flesh out these non regulation swords more with a focus specifically on how they handle. In a time when you had both centuries of skilled-trade craftsmanship but also the advent of the industrial revolution, combining machinery with man and mathematics and science and numbers with tradition, this era of swords interests me the most. Laboratories and tests to find the most perfectly optimized swords. And in that era, when they had things down to exact sciences, people STILL chose deliberately non regulation swords. It is those swords, and why they chose them, that interests me the most.
Some were fashion trends, such as the Royal Navy liking shorter claymore blades, or French infantry officers and Toledo pattern blades. But when the Wilkinson ledger has an officer make specific requests, there is something deliberate there, something they thought would make for a better sword. I dont believe there is ever 1 perfect sword out there, and there is no thesis statement of mine that shakes up the antique sword academic world (beyond Patent Hilts feeling more lively in the hand == a better sword by ease of handling), but I want to have a large enough collection that I can point to general unusual trends and deviations and find what works and what doesn't work on the subjective grading of my own tastes.
Or, in other words, I collect the swords I think I would enjoy using the most.
Most of my long write-ups are on the IASC facebook group if only because that tends to be the spot where the majority of British sword discussion occurs (and it is easy to make a quick upload of text and photos), I do have many other unusual British sabres or ones of unique provenance such as this 1892. To link it again,
https://sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/t...sword-showcase is the state of my collection as of ~2.5 years ago now. The British, French, and Italian fields are really the only ones that have grown significantly since so many items are not photographed there. But if there are any listed there that you would like more photos and information on, please do not hesitate to let me know, thank you!