Rev War Finger Hole Short Sword

[Jim McDougall]

Wayne! Forgot about that beauty!!! A classic example of the often unusual development of weapon forms and their elements in the Spanish colonial contexts. While the unusual hilt ring feature seems most associated with the dirks typically regarded as Central American (Levine, 1985) the curious ring feature mounted at top of crossguard does seem to have diffused well into the edged weapons in Mexico.

As always it is hard to figure any sort of developmental progression in these often rural and unregulated contexts
Local blacksmiths and armorers were most innovative and certainly duplicated these weapon features favored by the incoming men from other colonial regions.

These notable guard rings appear to have become a component in examples of the espada ancha which are typically regarded as consistently situated in Mexico's frontera (northern frontier regions) northern Mexico and Spanish southwest.

There the espada anchas, which were actually short heavy hangers or 'cutlasses' eventually evolved into longer swords, which in the Mexican tradition were typically saddle mounted. Characteristically, caballeros and vaqueros mounted sword scabbards to the mochilla under the saddle and left leg of rider.

A vaquero with espada ancha worn on saddle as seen c. 1820s(first image). By 1850s, these had become shorter and more like Bowie knives so worn on the person. By later in the century saddle swords were still more the standard, so indeed there were cases of Mexican saddle mounted types into the Revolution period. However the Mexican 'rurales' of Diaz and many 'chinacos' into the Revolution wore swords in scabbard in the traditional manner.

In the photos.....a vaquero of 1820s (original art by David Rickman for my article on espada anchas, 2023) the espada ancha is drawn from the 2nd from bottom in my grouping.

Espada anchas.....third from bottom with horn grip has dragoon sword blade and may have been saddle mounted, probably from Sinaloa.

Rurales, frontier police of Porfiriato c. 1880s

Emiliano Zapata, leader of Mexican Revolution forces in south, Morelos.

Typical 'rurales' saber c. 1880s.