#spadroons

[blue-and-gilt]

What happens when a friend and fellow sword collector comes round to talk swords, collecting, rifles, books and generally chew the fat.

[awallofswords]

Why Sabers dominated over Smallswords & Spadroons for Infantry Officers

[victoriansword]

Sword Studies 010 - 1786 Infantry Officer Sword (Silver hilt)

The tenth in a long running series where we take an in depth look at one antique sword per video. This will include detailed measures of blade length, weight, balance and other characteristics, as well as close up video work and a historical overview. 010 is a British Infantry officer's sword or spadroon with a hallmarked silver hilt and double edged diamond section blade.

[blue-and-gilt]

Playing with different backgrounds for displaying swords on. The blue is quite a cold colour, especially with all the bare steel. And at times the bluing also gets lost. I think the burgundy works well, so I will probably use that for the coming display. The top two swords are Georgian era non-regulation infantry officers swords. While the bottom two are 1796 Pattern swords, the one with the boatshell guard is for General Officers or Dragoon Officers dismounted service while the one with the Pas d’Ane guard is for infantry officers

[blue-and-gilt]

British 1796 Pattern Swords.

A ‘Pattern’ was a centrally held, sealed example that manufacturers could refer to for measurements and other specifications. Because of this, some variation still occurred amongst the different producers. In the British context, Pattern is used in the same way that others use model.

While other patterns already existed for British equipment, such as the Brown Bess musket, the 1796 Pattern was the first introduced for swords, prior, there were the 1786, 1788 and regimental regulation swords. These regulations however, were very broad and now days, get used as much for convenience by collectors than for accuracy.

As the first pattern, the 1796 encompassed all branches of the army, and included:

The infantry sergeants sword

Infantry officers sword

Light cavalry troopers sabre

Light cavalry officers sabre

Heavy cavalry troopers sword

Household Guards troopers sword

Heavy cavalry officers service sword

Heavy cavalry officer dismounted service sword.

In terms of uniformity trooper and sergeant swords were broadly uniform having been purchased and proof tested by the Ordnance Board, another new concept that was introduced at the same time.

However since officers purchased their own swords privately there exists a lot of variation between them. Both in physical specifications such as weight or blade length or even going so far as to change the blade for the new ‘Pipe-back’. Or using a family heirloom blade that was completely non-regulation.

In the photos I show a number of officer and trooper examples, including a light cavalry style hilt on a pipeback blade, a light weight light cavalry style sword with un-fullered shamshir style blade that was likely a cavalry officers dress sword and a heavy cavalry officers dress sword with boatshell guard and a mid 18th century heirloom backsword blade.

[awallofswords]

A new display has gone up. A small one showing my three Georgian era British Spadroons. They are from left to right:

1786 Pattern Infantry Officer’s sword with 5-ball guard. Aalso called a five-ball spadroon.

1796 Pattern with boatshell guard. Commonly called the Heavy Cavalry Officer’s dismounted service sword.

1796 Pattern Infantry Officer’s sword.

[victoriansword]

Sword Studies 011 - Artillery Officer Sword - circa 1790

The eleventh in a long running series where we take an in depth look at one antique sword per video. This will include detailed measures of blade length, weight, balance and other characteristics, as well as close up video work and a historical overview. 

 Please note, British artillery officers in the late 18th and early 19th century typically carried the same swords as infantry officers, which is why this sword is highly unusual, and may have been for an officer of the Honourable Artillery Company, please see the link below for more info about them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honoura...

[victoriansword]

The CULT of the Spadroon: Adventures in SWORD terminology

The spadroon is a type of sword that has haters, admirers and now virtually a cult. The problem is what swords get caught in the 'spadroon trap'.