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Originally Posted by celtan
Thanks for the suggestions, guys.
I believe this piece to be an early 19th C. Swedish naval saber, ~1800-20?. I got it under the label of late 18th C. If anyone has more info, kindly let me know.
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I would date it to 1770-1809, based on the hilt type. In 1770 a new saber type was adopted for Swedish naval officers, which seems to have called for a hilt shaped like yours, with the details of both the blade and the hilt decoration left to the taste of the individual officers (though an anchor on the guard may have been mandatory). There's no sign of this hilt type prior to 1770 though in Berg's
Svenska Blankvapen.
Given the relatively simple decoration on yours, I would suspect that it was made for someone who didn't have very deep pockets, especially as it doesn't look gilded to me.
It would take until 1824 before a new model was adopted for naval officers, but I doubt any quantity of swords with this hilt type were ever made after 1809. In Sweden this hilt type is known as Gustavian (the Gustavian style being what was in fashion under Gustav III by and large). These hilts remained fashionable under the reign of Gustav IV as well.
However, Gustav IV lost Finland to Russia (quite the national trauma, Finland had been Swedish since the middle ages), was forced to abdicate by a military coup, and eventually replaced by the French marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (who reigned as Karl XIV Johan). As a result of this the Gustavian hilt went out of fashion in a hurry, largely replaced by French styles. The youngest Gustavian hilt shown in the volumes of
Svenska Blankvapen that I have at hand is dated to 1810.
Given that officers were generally allowed quite a bit of freedom in arming themselves, I suspect that few followed the regulations there in the period 1809-1824. 39 years after initial adoption the old pattern was probably starting to get a bit dated anyway, as far as taste and fashion went.