1796 LCS - Early Woolley Blade with Later WDD Scabbard?

efrahjalt · 17th April 2025, 10:07 PM

Thanks for the additional examples gents. Jim, that fluted grip is a beauty!

Glad to hear you concur with my assumption that it is an early blade based on the marking being only Woolley. By your dating that puts it sometime between 1788-1800 if I’m following correctly. Very cool!

I find it unlikely that it ended up randomly with a scabbard from the same manufacturer. The fact that it’s the same manufacturer as the blade makes me think that it was an intentional paring. Perhaps added later if the original scabbard was lost or broken, or maybe left over production blade that never left Woolley until later and went out with a later production scabbard. There are no other regimental marks on it that I can tell. Not sure if that says anything about its history.

Jim McDougall · 17th April 2025, 10:56 PM

Thank you so much!! especially for responding

I have had this saber since the 70s, and as I mentioned, it was termed a cavalry officers sword (?) but obviously this was atypical for any such thing.
The brass hilt, fluted grip and shorter blade clearly (as years later found) indicated a naval officers cutlass.
In a book by Wilkinson I found a match to this made by Durs Egg, identical ebony fluted grip etc. (cannot place title at the moment). As Egg did supply a lot of naval weapons it seems likely to support my idea (the one in the book was a frontispiece and not fully captioned).

I am inclined to agree on your date assessment, and Deakin as a partner only lasted until 1803. An article on this lurks about somewhere (I'll find it eventually). Wooley as I noted was heavily into the use of Montmorency section blades from the M1788s, and seems to have favored French affectations in hilts (his 1788 light cavalry hilt vs, Gill's which followed German form).

Jim McDougall · 18th April 2025, 01:03 AM

The center example of the fluted ebony grip brass hilt cutlass is one Mark Eley had and we discussed here in 2008. Note that his example of the same type hilt differs in having the regular hollow ground blade rather than the Montmorency (Wooley) I noted.
This suggests these were limited run of a type with cutlers using different blades, As indicated, I have seen one other example of these in Wilkinson,

18th April 2025, 01:03 AM	#3
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,295	Brass hilt cutlass The center example of the fluted ebony grip brass hilt cutlass is one Mark Eley had and we discussed here in 2008. Note that his example of the same type hilt differs in having the regular hollow ground blade rather than the Montmorency (Wooley) I noted. This suggests these were limited run of a type with cutlers using different blades, As indicated, I have seen one other example of these in Wilkinson, Attached Images

17th April 2025, 10:07 PM	#1
efrahjalt Member Join Date: Mar 2020 Posts: 58	Thanks for the additional examples gents. Jim, that fluted grip is a beauty! Glad to hear you concur with my assumption that it is an early blade based on the marking being only Woolley. By your dating that puts it sometime between 1788-1800 if I’m following correctly. Very cool! I find it unlikely that it ended up randomly with a scabbard from the same manufacturer. The fact that it’s the same manufacturer as the blade makes me think that it was an intentional paring. Perhaps added later if the original scabbard was lost or broken, or maybe left over production blade that never left Woolley until later and went out with a later production scabbard. There are no other regimental marks on it that I can tell. Not sure if that says anything about its history.

17th April 2025, 10:56 PM	#2
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,295	Thank you so much!! especially for responding I have had this saber since the 70s, and as I mentioned, it was termed a cavalry officers sword (?) but obviously this was atypical for any such thing. The brass hilt, fluted grip and shorter blade clearly (as years later found) indicated a naval officers cutlass. In a book by Wilkinson I found a match to this made by Durs Egg, identical ebony fluted grip etc. (cannot place title at the moment). As Egg did supply a lot of naval weapons it seems likely to support my idea (the one in the book was a frontispiece and not fully captioned). I am inclined to agree on your date assessment, and Deakin as a partner only lasted until 1803. An article on this lurks about somewhere (I'll find it eventually). Wooley as I noted was heavily into the use of Montmorency section blades from the M1788s, and seems to have favored French affectations in hilts (his 1788 light cavalry hilt vs, Gill's which followed German form).