Portuguese rapier blades

Radboud · 12th September 2023, 04:55 PM

Going by their style, I would agree that both these hilts are very late 18th Cent. or early 19th Cent. The brass one with the turned over guard especially, since by this stage the sword was worn almost entirely for dress or ceremonial reasons. That the blade is 40” is an outlier and I agree that it makes it much more likely to be a re-hilt with an earlier blade. Especially on a sword only worn for dress.

You’d need to examine the blade profile and taper to determine if it was cut down though.

Something to keep in mind, the style of smallsword fighting in the Iberian and Mediterranean region was different from that taught in France. This style retained some cuts and they used longer blades meaning they still ‘fingered the guard’ to retain point control. But 40” is long; by comparison, my largest smallsword is Spanish, and it has a 88cm blade with another 3cm between the guard and and the quillons.

To your other comment, while the trefoil blade was the most popular form for smallswords in Northern Europe and the UK, other profiles persisted and didn’t completely disappear.

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12th September 2023, 04:55 PM	#5
Radboud Member Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: New Zealand Posts: 253	Going by their style, I would agree that both these hilts are very late 18th Cent. or early 19th Cent. The brass one with the turned over guard especially, since by this stage the sword was worn almost entirely for dress or ceremonial reasons. That the blade is 40” is an outlier and I agree that it makes it much more likely to be a re-hilt with an earlier blade. Especially on a sword only worn for dress. You’d need to examine the blade profile and taper to determine if it was cut down though. Something to keep in mind, the style of smallsword fighting in the Iberian and Mediterranean region was different from that taught in France. This style retained some cuts and they used longer blades meaning they still ‘fingered the guard’ to retain point control. But 40” is long; by comparison, my largest smallsword is Spanish, and it has a 88cm blade with another 3cm between the guard and and the quillons. To your other comment, while the trefoil blade was the most popular form for smallswords in Northern Europe and the UK, other profiles persisted and didn’t completely disappear.