FRENCH MODEL 1850 FOOT OFFICERS SWORD

William V. · 7th May 2013, 03:47 PM

Hello,

thanks for the good pictures, they are absolutely ok for me.
I can't tell you why the weapon has no unit markings (or acceptance marks) but I have a guess...
Some weapons were private purchased, so they belonged to the (normally) officer and not to the unit. This practice was quite common in Germany.
Getting back to the marking, I can clarify this one: S. Hoppe Fils. The children (french: fils) of Samuel Hoppe took over his business and used this marking. If you look carefully you can still see the lower part of the letter "L". It's a quite rare marking (seen only one of them so far). Even though I have no idea why the firm S.Hoppe should have worked with a French manufacture. They had their own hammerworks...
So far from me, I hope I've been of some help.

All the best

William

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7th May 2013, 03:47 PM	#6
William V. Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 33	Hello, thanks for the good pictures, they are absolutely ok for me. I can't tell you why the weapon has no unit markings (or acceptance marks) but I have a guess... Some weapons were private purchased, so they belonged to the (normally) officer and not to the unit. This practice was quite common in Germany. Getting back to the marking, I can clarify this one: S. Hoppe Fils. The children (french: fils) of Samuel Hoppe took over his business and used this marking. If you look carefully you can still see the lower part of the letter "L". It's a quite rare marking (seen only one of them so far). Even though I have no idea why the firm S.Hoppe should have worked with a French manufacture. They had their own hammerworks... So far from me, I hope I've been of some help. All the best William