Quote:
Originally Posted by Yvain
Very interesting Kronckew ! It's seems rather unusual to me to use a buckler with a saber, the mix between eastern and european influences is rather unique.
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The opening question that is the topic of this thread is most interesting, though incredibly broad, as clearly the definition of 'Europe' itself has had many differing opinions itself over the years. To consider the definition into the colonial spheres brings even more complication. However, in terms of the viability of the question, it is a most interesting concept.
Wayne's mention of the relatively unknown people known as the Khevsurs, who are situated in the remote regions of Georgia in the Caucasian Mountains, is well placed in that they do regard themselves as European.
They however were as noted, virtually unknown to the outside world until the 1930s, when the adventurer Richard Halliburton visited them in his travels. His mention of them in his 1935 book "Seven League Boots" revealed them as an anachronistic people still living as if in the middle ages by portraying the men still wearing mail armor, and dueling with sword and buckler.
This was sensationalizing however, as the men did indeed stage duels wearing this gear, however not as daily attire, but much in the manner of fencing wear in a protective manner. The mail, helmets etc. were of course indeed 'traditional'.
I personally first heard of them in reading "Seven League Boots", which is exactly where this anecdote of the Khevsurs dressing 'for war' in 1915 derives from, and was truly intriguing. Years later when I acquired one of these swords, its classification was virtually unknown by the seller (who thought it was Zaporozhian!), this was in mid 90s.
When I tried to reach Russian sources to discover more about them, even the embassy insisted they had no idea who these people were, while others refused to even acknowledge their existence.
To return to the original question, the actual traditional 'wear' of an actual sword form in the sense of regular or daily attire in European society waned with the fashionable wear of the smallsword into the early 19th c. After that the only open wear of such swords were the 'court' swords worn by officials and gentry in such settings. Other than that would have been 'hunting swords' (hirschfangers et al) worn in the social 'hunt' events, where these carried the status and fashion element of course.
Beyond that, again in an isolated sense, would be probably Masonic and other related fraternal orders, which are of course rather quasi military in character, though certainly highly traditional.