European saber with Vietnamese mounts

[Nick Wardigo]

I can use some opinions on a new purchase I made last week. I believe it is a European blade and scabbard that has been dressed up in Vietnamese mounts (I apologize for using the dealer’s photos…I don’t have access to a digital camera at the moment). I suspect this once belonged to a French officer who was stationed in Indochina in the 19th century and had his weapon redressed locally for whatever reason.

Overall length in scabbard: 37 inches. Overall length out of scabbard: 34 inches. Length of blade: 27.5 inches. Width of spine at the forte: 5/16 inches.

The blade is obviously European with a lot of etching of decorative curlicues and whatnot. There appears to be a picture of drums and a banner. The letter “W” is stamped on the spine. I suspect that the blade is French, but I can’t find anything particularly French in the décor (such as French writing, a depiction of a French flag, etc.). This isn’t my area at all, so if anyone can contribute anything, I’d appreciate it.

The scabbard is metal and painted black…also European. But the throat, chape, and suspension mount are all brass and decorated with what appear to be typically Vietnamese motifs (dragons on the throat and chape). The guard is an elongated octagon, also decorated with dragons, and a long ferrule covers the first third of the handle, studded with five settings with stones. Two stones are black, two are clear, and one is missing. They are flush with the settings, and they may be glass.

The handle is a single piece of elephant ivory, very beautifully carved with a textured pattern. There is a stone on the pommel, which appears to be a replacement (in fact, it came off in transit). I would expect that this once had a brass cap that matched the other fittings.

I present all of my ideas of Vietnamese origin with a grain of salt. While the motifs of the fittings certainly APPEAR to be Vietnamese, the overall suite doesn’t exactly match anything I’ve seen before. The octagonal guard is odd, and the European blade is almost unheard of. Carved handles are common on the nicer kiem and guom, but I’ve never seen one without the longevity symbol (shou) carved into it. Of course, if this was intended for a French officer, this may explain the lack of the shou, or any other of the Buddhist iconography that is so common on Vietnamese arms. The short of it is, if anyone has any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks.