George III Dragon-Head Spadroon

[M ELEY]

Hello, sorry to come in late on this one. What a great spadroon! Very nice form! Most of the others have filled in a lot of the blanks already (obviously a spadroon, mid to late 18th), but I was wondering if there is any chance this might not be an English example, but Dutch?

The Dutch used spadroons like the English, even supplying their officers with models in the early 19th. The shagreen/rayskin wrapped hilt were also seen in the Dutch market and when you consider the dragon motiff, there could be a possile Ceylonese connection, as the Dutch were much taken by the 'oriental styling' (see European Swords/Anthony North, pg 30, specifically example 63 with a dragon motiff to the knuckle bow nearest the grip end). Just guessing here, so no shade if I'm off base!

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Hello, sorry to come in late on this one. What a great spadroon! Very nice form! Most of the others have filled in a lot of the blanks already (obviously a spadroon, mid to late 18th), but I was wondering if there is any chance this might not be an English example, but Dutch?

The Dutch used spadroons like the English, even supplying their officers with models in the early 19th. The shagreen/rayskin wrapped hilt were also seen in the Dutch market and when you consider the dragon motiff, there could be a possile Ceylonese connection, as the Dutch were much taken by the 'oriental styling' (see European Swords/Anthony North, pg 30, specifically example 63 with a dragon motiff to the knuckle bow nearest the grip end). Just guessing here, so no shade if I'm off base!

m

Excellent suggestion Capn!!!
The Dutch and English examples in swords ran remarkably close, as per Aylward (1945) with the connections via monarchy, trade etc. As you note, those 'monster' heads were of course well known in England, and the English were well acquainted with the Sinhalese kastane which of course carried these makara and yali zoomorphics.

[Jerseyman]

Thank you everyone for the thought-provoking information and opinions. The possible Dutch angle hadn't occurred to me and is something I'll look into with interest. I think there may well be something in the civilian gentleman angle. I do have smallswords with similar pommels. I don't have this spadroon to hand but as I remember there are no engravings on the blade. I'll have to dig into Aylward and see what correlations I can find.

[Hotspur]

My feelings are that the sword is of the 1755><1770 range and the rayskin original, probably with a silver or silver wash copper tape (with no wire) and a silver Turks head at the pommel.

Cheers
GC