Hounslow Hilt

[Jim McDougall]

This is an excellent idea Keith to take this topic to its own thread, and to be honest I have never really pursued the origins or influences which were likely to have inspired these distinctive hilts of Hounslow. I have transferred the images of my example to place with the discourse.

As noted in other discussion, my example appears to be one of these hangers with serrated back produced (or assembled) there c. 1630-40 for maritime use (in that parlance regarded as cutlass of course). Having noted that, it seems that woodcut images of pirate figures of the 'Golden Age' of piracy in latter 17th century have somewhat similar hilted examples in a number of them. These seem contemporary to the familiar shellguard dusagges of European origin.