[Hotspur]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Hello GC and Merry Christmas to you. Out of respect for the holiday, no need to respond for now, just something that has been bothering me...
I've been mulling over your information and find it very conclusive as well. It makes sense that these were imported all along if for nothing more than that most of the existing 'marked' blades were foreign. Likewise, your point about the much more uncommon brass lion hilts points both to private purchase and probable foreign import. Now that that is behind us, on to the next uncomfortable issue mentioned before...

You are now asking of clarification for much the same points already discussed but I'll give it a shot but some replies will on occasion go back to response already posted and be a question to answer the question.

Is this private-purchase brass lion-hilt limited to just American cavalry?

Were the 19th century spread eagle gothic hilted infantry swords with U.S. etchings on the blades sold to only U.S. infantry Officers? In the form you are pursuing, it is easy to make a case for lion pommel cast grip slotted hilt cavalry blades marked American targeted solely for American cavalry officers. However, are there any regulations supporting only these as suitable for cavalry officers during the federal period?

Was it sold to other factions of the early U.S. troops?

Under the qualification you have limited, hard to make a point those identical swords were distributed for anything else but American use. However, not intended for troops but for private purchases and as already accepted time and again by both of us.

Was it in fact sold over-seas via private purchase to other militia in other countries?

Somehow I am reading three questions with much the same intent, so my replies would be much the same. Sold in bulk to many of a certain group? Someone would have to come up with a period description of the sale receipt or written history referring to a mass of identical swords displayed by the group. Something like this but more descriptive of the swords themselves.

"He entered Springfield with a good deal of mediaeval display. His escort, which was composed of St. Louis German butchers, remarkable for their size and ferocious aspect, was mounted on powerful iron-gray horses and armed with big revolvers and massive swords, and thus accoutered dashed through the streets of the little town, which was held by…"

Are we considering only the cast grip lion pommel slotted hilt cavalry blades with American markings?

Baselon insists in that earlier article that solid brass hilts were not popular in europe as the design flaw lay in the grip being slippery when wet with sweat. If we accept that the hilts were not made in America, that they were not the standard pattern but private purchase and that they were far less common, do we also open that door to uncertainty as to their ultimate use?

Again, I have not read the article or passages in context and in the determining qualifications of the discussion but cast grips reigned for more that two centuries on any number of shorter blades and are also found on swords with longer blades including the Prahls discussed earlier. Not grooved, those would have been considered much slicker. Would a horseman have not regularly worn gloves/gauntlets? Is he mentioning it in regard to the all those briquet and infantry hangers? Those cast grips that were meant for worldwide domination over the course of centuries?

A better reference and context for Bazelon's insistence?

I don't know.

Cheers

GC