cutlass ID ?

M ELEY · 15th March 2011, 04:31 PM

An interesting sword indeed with some mystery still remaining. As I said, these types have been attributed to naval use via private purchase. They copied their issued naval cousins in general design. If you have Gilkerson's 'Boarders Away", you will see a similar type listed under private purchase swords. Likewise, another in 'Naval Swords", P.G.W. Annis, pg 61 marked (WIDC No11 for West India Dock Company) and another in "Navies of the American Revolution", David Lyon, pg 76.
The interesting thing about yours is that the iron grip appears to have been primed. This was a common enough practice to retard rusting from salt air. Typical priming (not japanning) was done with black paint or tar, but brown and barn red primer were also popular, as seen on some boarding axes of the period.
It is quite possible that this sword dates to the War of 1812 era or slightly there-after, thus the first gov't marking and was reissued during the reign of Victoria to a merchant ship to discourage piracy (this was the era of the Malay piracies, Sepoy Mutiny and end of the Barbary Corsair era. I have since come across other private purchase types of boarding cutlass of the ca.1800 pattern, but marked VR. One in my collection is definately of the m1803 Brit boarding cutlass pattern with a weak VR stamp. It makes sense that these types could have been re-used, just as early boarding axes were sometimes found on ships late into the 19th century. This might explain the Enfield marking if that esteemed maker re-issued this sword. A very nice find, BTW.

15th March 2011, 04:31 PM	#1
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,156	An interesting sword indeed with some mystery still remaining. As I said, these types have been attributed to naval use via private purchase. They copied their issued naval cousins in general design. If you have Gilkerson's 'Boarders Away", you will see a similar type listed under private purchase swords. Likewise, another in 'Naval Swords", P.G.W. Annis, pg 61 marked (WIDC No11 for West India Dock Company) and another in "Navies of the American Revolution", David Lyon, pg 76. The interesting thing about yours is that the iron grip appears to have been primed. This was a common enough practice to retard rusting from salt air. Typical priming (not japanning) was done with black paint or tar, but brown and barn red primer were also popular, as seen on some boarding axes of the period. It is quite possible that this sword dates to the War of 1812 era or slightly there-after, thus the first gov't marking and was reissued during the reign of Victoria to a merchant ship to discourage piracy (this was the era of the Malay piracies, Sepoy Mutiny and end of the Barbary Corsair era. I have since come across other private purchase types of boarding cutlass of the ca.1800 pattern, but marked VR. One in my collection is definately of the m1803 Brit boarding cutlass pattern with a weak VR stamp. It makes sense that these types could have been re-used, just as early boarding axes were sometimes found on ships late into the 19th century. This might explain the Enfield marking if that esteemed maker re-issued this sword. A very nice find, BTW.