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Old 28th December 2021, 03:03 AM   #30
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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In looking at this further, first I'd like to thank Fernando for the superb research, data presented and observations........this not only pertinent but most valuable perspective and much appreciated.

It seems that during these Napoleonic campaigns and subsequent occupations, there was apparently some propensity for unique blade acquisitions by British officers. In Paris, there were a number of blades acquired which were M1796 heavy cavalry officers sword blades, blued with the cypher of George III, and marked Klingenthal, the French sword blade factory.
Apparently in Solingen there were numbers of these M1796 British heavy cavalry blades left over from the J J Runkel contracts which ended 1807.
These must have been either decorated in Solingen or possibly Klingenthal, however the style of inscription matches the type used by Solingen with the Runkel contracts (article by Richard Dellar, 'Man at Arms', Vol.43,#4, August 2021).

With the Toledo factory, it was indeed closed down for a time during the Peninsular campaigns and perhaps in the ensuing struggle for independence.
The Toledo factory had been reopened in 1761 after a nearly century long hiatus, and in producing cavalry sword blades with patterns in the 1790s they did begin using the 'clipped point' (sharpened along the blade back considerably up the blade).
This suggests that the industry was favoring this feature on blades, and the raised back 'yelman' was in vogue, so this beveled looking blade does correspond to Spanish style, though admittedly an anomaly.

If a 'Toledo' blade was desired by a British officer in this notable year, 1812, then it does seem possible he may have been accommodated. Clearly a private commission would include his name in a status measure. The style hilt is similar in character to Osborn hilts, and if this blade was made for this officer, a scabbard to suit would have been made in accord with the blade.
The partial obscuring of the inscription (which does seem in accord with Toledo convention of the period) would be understandable with this custom blade. The presence of English swords was of course well established in Spain in these times.

The mounting of English blades in Indian hilts in the British Raj is well known, and vice versa, foreign blades on English hilts.
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