East India Co. ??
Hi Will,
Thank you for bringing back this thread! Fascinating topic, and recalling the years of such great discussions which offered outstanding insights with the collective knowledge shared!
It seems to me that 'Garden' in its varying names as a military outfitter was very much in attendance to the military in the Raj and earlier the East India Company. I recall seeing another book by the author Bob Brooker "British Military Pistols" which had various examples mentioning Garden Co. and it seems in particular some of the 'Poona' units.
I have long had a British M1821 light cavalry troopers sword by Reeves, which has triple digit numbers 111 on the blade spine .
I had always wondered if perhaps this was numbering in accord with the unit number in a contract? specific to the maker.
But later something suggested that supply to EIC had blades numbered?
It seems uncharacteristic for British sword makers to number the regular swords for troopers etc. (though we know that Wilkinson of course began serial numbers on officers swords in 1850s).
Also, interestingly Reeves had begun his new tang patent, and these became the sandwich type grip on the new M1853, so I wondered if this had some oblique association since it was by Reeves (this does not have the new tang so it is not transitional).
Perhaps I'm 'chasing zebras' here, but very curious.
What would these numbers mean?
Beautiful example sword you posted, especially to this supplier BTW!
All the best
Jim
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