Oval Ring in Scottish Basket hilts

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Hello Jim and what a great basket this is! I read in Neumann's that both infantry and cavalry baskets had broadsword blades in the earlier periods (I'm assuming mid-18th?). This lengthy blade has to be cavalry! Likewise, the oval would indeed allow for holding a rein while riding. Another point is this basket doesn't have the wrist guard, which would have been more practical on an infantry piece where two enemies might have engaged in hand-to-hand (the wrist guard having been around since the 1690's onwards to prevent the deadly Scottish practice of slicing an opponent's hand in the open basket). Cavalry baskets were used just to mow down their opponets on foot! Of note is the fact that the bars of the saltires are joined by the pommel ring as opposed to just sliding under it. I think these oval-open baskets were later, so with all the factoring, perhaps a mid-18th c. piece? This is a great sword!

Capn, thank you so much for your comments!! well observed as always.
There has always been a good deal of consternation over finding a pragmatic purpose for these oval rings. In most cases it remains held these were for holding the hilt and reins to free the other hand, thus obviously a feature for horsemen and British rather than definitively "Scottish' as intended for use in British mounted units.

While these may have appeared around 1730s, they do seem more prevalent in 1750s+ After 1750s the blade lengths were increased as well, to up to 39" as seen here.