Pre Culloden English dragoon basket hilt?

[urbanspaceman]

Hi Jim. I was mistaken... Matt was talking about a transition in the Victorian period when basket hilt and sabre were the same fighting technique, so concessions were made to facilitate the sabre style grip with a basket hilt which meant opening up the side bars.
Obviously this doesn't apply to your sword.
You might have look at hilt development over the period to see how the side bars developed as yours do seem wider.

[Jim McDougall]

In searching through "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution" (George Neumann, 1973) I found this nearly exact match to this hilt.

As it is suggested the date period 1680-1710 it well might be that it may have been part of a production of hilts for the Highland units formed into the British army. It is known they were supplied with 'Highland hilts', and it is notable that the Scottish convention of the arms of the guard keyed into the slotted pommel is present.

On my example the blade seems more into 18th century perhaps 1715-20? as it is straight with back fuller, and has what appears to be a fluer de lis at center. While the question of whether the fluer de lis was used on English blades remains unanswered, it is notable that many French blades of these times did have a fluer de lis, presumably a state arsenal mark?