[Radboud]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Radboud, again, it is amazing to have this discussion on this topic, and particularly noting the part played by Solingen in actual blade decoration.
I am glad you joined us Bryce! now both 'top guns' in this field of collecting are here! and gentlemen, quite honestly I defer to your well founded expertise.

Thank you for the endorsement Jim, but Bryce and others like Brian Robson, Richard Dellar and Chris Allen are the true experts. I'm only an amateur who likes to ask questions or add my observations when I can.

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Naturally as officers bought their swords typically commissioned by outfitters who were often also jewelers, workers in precious metals and privately commissioned. Naturally Solingen had artisans who also decorated blades, but I had thought that commissioning a sword for an officer would likely be more personally achieved with a local outfitter he was familiar with.

This question on the International Antique Swords Facebook group seems relevant and got an excellent answer from Steve Langham, another authority on British swords:

Anyone know how many sword makers were active in GB during the 19th C?
I keep discovering yet another, and that doesn’t even count the cutlers. Clearly an empire at almost perpetual war, as the demand for officers kit could support so many makers and cutlers.

Steve answered:

Yeah, it's a difficult question, it depends on what you call a sword maker, as there are a dozen different stages to making a sword, and even some of our best known British 'sword-makers' were known to have used German-made blades (yes, even Gill and Osborn), especially in times of peak demand. Early in the 19th C it was more of a cottage industry (especially in Birmingham), where blade-makers, scabbard-makers, hilt-makers etc. can be found listed separately. Towards the later 19th C these tended to amalgamate into big producers who took the various stages in-house (Mole, Wilkinson etc.).

There are 4,320 distinct 'points of sale' (unique name and address) in the database across the Empire, arranged into 1,794 related tables, as you can sort sellers into dynasties, e.g. where a son took over and the name changed.

A new attribution turns up about once every fortnight, which is a much reduced frequency, so we are definitely bottoming out the data, but I doubt the database will ever stop expanding as new swords come to light.

For reference, Steve is building a database of British sword makers, cutlers, tailors etc from advertising directories published at the time and other sources such as news articles. His work can be found here: Swordresearch.org