Giant British 1788 Light Cavalry Sabre

Jim McDougall · 4th August 2024, 02:28 PM

Interesting discussion on these late 18th century British cavalry sabers, and MOST interesting example being of such notably large size.
I am wondering on the folding knuckle guard feature, and why the term 'attack hilt' is used (as noted). By its design it is of course a 'guard' for the hand.

I am also wondering if this folding type feature was taken from a French innovation (I think I saw this mentioned in Dellar) of the period.
While it seems the so called M1788 sabers followed a pretty standard hilt pattern, as seen in the sword exercises manual of the 1790s illustrations, there were it seems some nuances in the hilts.

One thing I noticed, which may be moot, is that James Wooley hilts seemed to follow more of a French character in the pommel has a domed effect and the langets are of elliptical shape. With Thomas Gill, his hilts were distinctly Germanic with squared elongated langets and the flat top pommel cap.

Naturally in the pre regulation cavalry hilt situation of the time, there would be variations by makers producing hilts, it would seem more prevalent with officers swords as these were essentially privately commissioned. In my view,it seems even the M1796 light cavalry patterns there was a degree of variation. I recall in my early days of collecting trying to find variant patterns of 1796 hilts. A friend in Denmark focused on this same topic wrote an article on this (I cant find it as yet, auughh!) showing variant hilts.

4th August 2024, 02:28 PM	#1
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,896	Interesting discussion on these late 18th century British cavalry sabers, and MOST interesting example being of such notably large size. I am wondering on the folding knuckle guard feature, and why the term 'attack hilt' is used (as noted). By its design it is of course a 'guard' for the hand. I am also wondering if this folding type feature was taken from a French innovation (I think I saw this mentioned in Dellar) of the period. While it seems the so called M1788 sabers followed a pretty standard hilt pattern, as seen in the sword exercises manual of the 1790s illustrations, there were it seems some nuances in the hilts. One thing I noticed, which may be moot, is that James Wooley hilts seemed to follow more of a French character in the pommel has a domed effect and the langets are of elliptical shape. With Thomas Gill, his hilts were distinctly Germanic with squared elongated langets and the flat top pommel cap. Naturally in the pre regulation cavalry hilt situation of the time, there would be variations by makers producing hilts, it would seem more prevalent with officers swords as these were essentially privately commissioned. In my view,it seems even the M1796 light cavalry patterns there was a degree of variation. I recall in my early days of collecting trying to find variant patterns of 1796 hilts. A friend in Denmark focused on this same topic wrote an article on this (I cant find it as yet, auughh!) showing variant hilts.