Glasgow Hilt?

Jim McDougall · 2nd October 2024, 03:20 AM

Thank you Rachelle for the additional information! Clearly your grandfather was a fascinating and interesting guy who liked to expand his horizons judging by his eclectic scope of collecting. It seems he was primarily a gun collector as most of his records and notes focused on them. The swords it seems attracted him for the aesthetics, as these are extremely attractive examples of the most revered forms, the schiavona and Scottish basket hilt.

It seems to me that these are 19th century examples, probably end of the century with the basket hilts. As earlier noted the first one follows Glasgow form and has a blade compellingly like the blades of Sudanese kaskara, but possibly German. While kaskaras with these triple fullers were the source of many sword fabrications after the 1898 campaigns, these type blades were coming out of Solingen many years earlier.

The hilt on this as well as the second basket hilt seem to be perhaps for officers of the Scottish regiments certainly post 1828, and probably later. The second one has the circle eight hearts on shield and hearts of later configuration on the side guard. The device with roundels rather than the traditional rams horns is also indicative of these later military hilts, as is the metal scabbard.

Scottish tradition, fashion and convention became highly in vogue from 1850s onward in Great Britain, so the fabrication of these swords may well have been in this context.

The schiavona is another case of strong traditional form followed, but most certainly not exactly. The pommel, which is properly brass, lacks the ears (points) of the characteristic cats head.....but most interestingly has the lions head in place of the central boss. The lion is the heraldic symbol of St. Marks and Venice, but this typically is marked elsewhere on the sword. I have not seen one on a pommel like this.

The lattice, arms of the guard are slightly different, but variation was common, and the downturned quillon is quite unusual. It reminds me of a Spanish affectation. It should be noted that schiavona did make it into Spain in some circumstances.
With this it is hard to say for sure where this outstanding sword falls, but it does have an old German blade with the well known running wolf.

The Wallace Collection in London is one of the most outstanding resource centers for the study of historical arms and armor, and the two volume catalogue reference is in my opinion one the most valuable we have.

2nd October 2024, 03:20 AM	#10
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,943	Thank you Rachelle for the additional information! Clearly your grandfather was a fascinating and interesting guy who liked to expand his horizons judging by his eclectic scope of collecting. It seems he was primarily a gun collector as most of his records and notes focused on them. The swords it seems attracted him for the aesthetics, as these are extremely attractive examples of the most revered forms, the schiavona and Scottish basket hilt. It seems to me that these are 19th century examples, probably end of the century with the basket hilts. As earlier noted the first one follows Glasgow form and has a blade compellingly like the blades of Sudanese kaskara, but possibly German. While kaskaras with these triple fullers were the source of many sword fabrications after the 1898 campaigns, these type blades were coming out of Solingen many years earlier. The hilt on this as well as the second basket hilt seem to be perhaps for officers of the Scottish regiments certainly post 1828, and probably later. The second one has the circle eight hearts on shield and hearts of later configuration on the side guard. The device with roundels rather than the traditional rams horns is also indicative of these later military hilts, as is the metal scabbard. Scottish tradition, fashion and convention became highly in vogue from 1850s onward in Great Britain, so the fabrication of these swords may well have been in this context. The schiavona is another case of strong traditional form followed, but most certainly not exactly. The pommel, which is properly brass, lacks the ears (points) of the characteristic cats head.....but most interestingly has the lions head in place of the central boss. The lion is the heraldic symbol of St. Marks and Venice, but this typically is marked elsewhere on the sword. I have not seen one on a pommel like this. The lattice, arms of the guard are slightly different, but variation was common, and the downturned quillon is quite unusual. It reminds me of a Spanish affectation. It should be noted that schiavona did make it into Spain in some circumstances. With this it is hard to say for sure where this outstanding sword falls, but it does have an old German blade with the well known running wolf. The Wallace Collection in London is one of the most outstanding resource centers for the study of historical arms and armor, and the two volume catalogue reference is in my opinion one the most valuable we have.