The "Bushy Tailed Fox" story

[urbanspaceman]

The beginnings of the Shotley Bridge enterprise was 1685 - 7 when the German workers arrived. The initial batch of blades released were marked with the name Shotle(y) Bridg(e) but also featured a Passau Wolf in a typical Solingen rendering of lines. These blades had been smuggled into Shotley Bridge by Harmonn Mohll (part of the Solingen diaspora) who would continue to smuggle in blades for the Jacobites at least until 1703 when he was caught and briefly jailed. The village name was added to advertise the fact that the works were up and running. Almost the entire initial supply with the Passau Wolf were sold to local wealthy Jacobites.
Once the works were fully up and running, blades went to the Hollow Sword Blade Company syndicate in London. This syndicate had been started surreptitiously at the behest of King James II as a cover for arming the militia of his supporters. The cover story was production of hollow smallsword blades at a reasonable price, as German imports were penalised with taxes and constrictive tariffs.
Unfortunately – or not – the result of the Glorious Revolution in 1788 put William on the throne and by 1691 the syndicate had been taken over by various money-men who had financed the revolution. The output of the village then went to the Tower via The Hollow Sword Blade Company; many were subsequently sent up to Glasgow.
The Jacobites continued to be successfully supplied by Mohll's smuggling enterprise as almost the entire output of the village was going down to the syndicate in London.
During that brief interim period, before the new syndicate gained control, Adam Oley produced blades in the village and marked them with his adopted symbol of the Bushy Tailed Fox which can be found on a few, but only a few, assorted blades. In particular, a narrow, flat bladed smallsword for the 1st Duke of Northumberland: Lieutenant-General George Fitzroy, third son of Charles II by the Countess of Castlemaine. Fitzroy had earlier acquired a Horseman's sword made with that initial batch of Passau Wolf marked blades. At this time he was Commander of the 2nd Troop of Horse Guards and this is indicated on the shell of his Horseman's sword.
Returning to the smallsword, we find both an early style Bushy Tailed Fox punzone and the words Shotle and Bridg on the blade. Considering this was 1688/9 it became the indication and proof I needed that the BTF was the Oley symbol.
By 1713, Oley was independent of the syndicate – fully autonomous. He named the Cutlers Guild he created 'The Guild of the Running Fox' and up here on Tyneside the BTF has always been associated with Oley in Shotley Bridge. He sold many thousands of blades to the Tower (enough for him to own almost the entire, significantly developed, village) and was regarded as the finest bladesmith in the country. He also sold blade blanks to Birmingham smiths (the Samuel Harvey trinity in particular) and these were marked with his final, stylised BTF. Birmingham names and/or initials were added by those companies to indicate who the Tower should pay… hence all the ensuing confusion.
A gratuitous non sequitur follows...
A curious incident, recounted below by an Oley descendant to chronicler William Hone, will indicate just how successful the Oleys had become:
"James Justice Runkle, a German pedlar, who travelled in this country with his various wares, smuggled over from the continent a quantity of sword-blades, and, with a view of legalizing them and giving them currency, he applied to the father of my informant [Oley] for permission to put his name upon them. This was accordingly done, and they were sold under the name of Oligar [sic]. But government ultimately detected the fraud, and Oley gave evidence in London that the blades had not issued from his manufactory at Shotley."
History: In 1787, Runkel was brought to trial at the Court of Exchequer for the alleged undervaluing of imported goods. The trial did not run to completion, but concluded when Runkel agreed to settle and pay two thirds of the value of the confiscated swords, as well as all court costs and expenses. His payment came to £1,480.00: a sum that would be worth around £172,600 in today’s money.
Regarding the posted images:
The first two are the horseman's sword of Fitzroy.
Then we have the smallsword featuring the early BTF; unfortunately the image is not perfect and the script is only partially legible as it is a thumbnail from an auctioneers.
There follows assorted early BTF swords followed by an example of the added Samuel Harvey initials.

[Jim McDougall]

Absolutely brilliant Keith, and this is perfect forensic presentation of the mystery of this marking!
I have to admit that in my early days of collecting, back in the early 70s, i specialized (?) in British military swords and became aware of the Hounslow enterprise. Later when I learned of Shotley it was hard for me to truly understand the differences, mostly as there was hardly much on these other than cursory notes in some references.

It was not until the 80s when more research revealed some obscure titles which took forever to find and get copies of. Those were the days before computers so interlibrary loan and reference librarians were the only resources, and these efforts took months or longer to achieve.

In those days, always interested in blade markings, I had been trying to learn more on the 'Passau' wolf, or running wolf as it became collectively known.
Over the years I discovered that this ubiquitous mark was used more prolifically in Solingen, where it was seen more as a quality oriented device. I believed the mark had deeper symbolism as it was placed in so many variations that it could not have been distinctly qualified as a spurious use of a makers mark etc.

Wagner (1967) showed a plate of these variations with each example with date(period) shown as if it were a chronologically developed form. This was NOT the case, and these dates were simply assumed by the exemplars on blades they were seen on.
Clearly the application depended on the skill or whim of the worker putting the mark in the blade.

According to Wagner, the 'wolf' had been added to the blades going to Passau for the forces of Leopold, in the manner of 'branding' Solingen was so well known for in their blades to certain clientele.

Whatever the case, it seems use of the wolf was diminished by the end of the 17th century, and ceased entirely in Solingen by early in the 18th.
This brings the case of Samuel Harvey, whose mark (I thought was just a copy of the running wolf) in the mid 18th c. and thinking he was just using it as a taunt to the Solingen blades ever permeating the commerce to cutlers in England.

It NEVER dawned on me it was a FOX! boink! I was a worse detective than Clouseau!!

Not until I met Keith, some years ago, did I realize...this was a FOX!!!

Then came the theories that perhaps this was perhaps a tongue in cheek use of the English fox to supplant the German wolf .....sounded good
To add to the insult or taunt, I thought Harvey must have emblazoned his initials in the fox accordingly.....in a 'so there' kind of attitude.

More research that ensued, as I was caught up in the fever pitch intensity of Keith's, revealed that Hounslow, while staffed with German makers in the 1630s...was still 'salting' their stock with covertly supplied Solingen blades.
While the Hounslow makers often marked their names on the blades (a practice NEVER used by English makers, Aylward, 1945), there were still many with the distinctive Hounslow hilts, but running wolf marked blades. I have a Hounslow hanger with only a latten running wolf, no name.
Also a mortuary with ANDREA FERARA blade, attributed to Hounslow c1642.. (featured in Bezdek).
While typically regarded as solely Scottish blades, this shows that these spuriously marked Solingen blades went into England, via Hounslow, as noted.

The Hounslow enterprise virtually disintegrated with Cromwell's take over.

It was not until the next phase of English sword making enterprise using German makers began in 1685, as Keith describes, that the intrigue and complex machinations continued. With the ever complicated issues involving the Jacobites that evolved into the familiar campaigns and uprisings, it can be seen how this well disguised enterprise evolved and carried forward with more intrigue than a BOND movie!
Only the super sleuthing of Keith could finally capture all of this, and in addition, actually FIND examples of the swords that entirely support his theories and compelling evidence.

That the BTF (bushy tail fox was totally misunderstood, (I was clearly not alone!) is exemplified by a caption in a reference (I have yet to relocate) where the SHOTLEY mark was accompanied by what was noted as a 'running horse'(?). It was the BTF.
Another reference (Gardner) shows one as from Austria mid 18th c.(revealing the caveat toward these references).

While these mysteries have remained so for generations, it is this work that had finally brought the cold case to light.
I for one am ever grateful for this, and anxious to continue, there is still more to learn.

I hope others will find this intriguing as well and join in here.

[Norman McCormick]

Hi,
This thread may be of interest. http://vikingsword.com/vb/showthread...highlight=1742 I still have the sword so if you want any more images please let me know. The BTF is on both sides of the blade.
Regards,
Norman.

[Jim McDougall]

OMG Norman!!!!
Thats exactly what I was talking about....back then we had no clue about the BTF! While Cloke was doing research on the running wolf he was keeping 'cards close to his vest', so no idea if what he was pursuing paralleled my study.
Wonderful example! Thank you!

It would seem Oley (of Shotley Bridge) was supplying blades to Birmingham and likely Harvey simply added his initials to the BTF. For some time there was some consternation about the examples of BTF found WITHOUT the SH initials....so the deduction was that perhaps Dawes was applying the mark as such (but without initials). Various blades are known with simply SH initial or sometimes his name with first initial. To add to the confusion his son also was involved. The use of the BTF seems to have waned in a few years altogether, but we know that Oley was still supplying blades into the 1790s as he was named as a participant in the blade trials of the so called sword scandals.

[urbanspaceman]

The first sword I ever bought – in 2017 - was this 1740s/50s cavalry hangar with the distinctive BTF. I bought it because I had seen a similar sword sold at auction a few years previously and attributed to the Oley family of SB.
Then I found a 1960s newspaper photo of an Oley descendant and village resident holding what he claimed was the last sword ever forged in the village. It is perfectly clear it is a mid.1700s hangar with a typical brass hilt.
I was suspicious, because I wondered how and/or where it had been hilted then remained in the village. At that time I was not aware of the Wilson family of SB who had been sword slippers even before the arrival of the Solingen diaspora, hilting blades made by Bertram at Allensford (upstream from SB) as early as 1670.
Anyway, it was obviously not the last sword made in the village but probably a rare remaining article perhaps passed down through the generations. It was, however, as I subsequently discovered, the same sword sold in auction and was indeed a product of the Oley family. It featured the BTF alone.
For some time I asked around locally if the BTF was a product of the Oleys and the answer was always yes. I asked nationally – and globally – if this was true and everyone said it was the mark of the Harveys. My follow-up question was always "Why are there no initials?" but this was never answered so I began my quest to establish that it was an Oley mark. When the smallsword (previously displayed) appeared in an auction archive with details of the village name script and – on enlarging it – also a BTF, I knew I had established my theory.

[Norman McCormick]

Hi,
Better images of the fox on both sides of my blade.
Regards,
Norman.

[urbanspaceman]

Hi Norman. Note the reversal of the fox which is often seen.

Below, my hangar showing the hilt and the shell markings.
Apparently, the crown over the nine was the proof master's symbol. I have been told his identity was kept secret, hence the use of a number; although I was also told that long ago the numbers were revealed and documented... any takers for this one?
The rack stamp is unknown to me but I am sure someone will know. Best guess: 2nd Battalion - but which one?

[Jim McDougall]

The crowned number was used on British swords from 1796 until 1820, after that it was a crown over letter (E=Enfield etc.) then a number.
I had never heard the numbers were kept secret. In France, the number or initial of the inspector identified each by name; in America inspectors used their initials. Whatever the case it seems most inspectors were known.....uncertain why they would keep names secret, but have never seen listing of who these guys were.

[Triarii]

I'd be interested in any identification of the inspection marks. As far as I could ascertain, its not clear if the numbers were linked to specific individuals or inspections carried out at specific manufacturers. The highest number I've seen was '12' on a 1796 HCS I had.