French colichemarde

[Jim McDougall]

In rereading this thread, there is attention to the French M1767 regulation sword, In my understanding, the character of most 'regulation' swords in many if not most cases, is an official recognition of a standard pattern in use in a certain capacity by regular military forces. Often these simply record the forms already in use and simply record this and note as 'officially' sanctioned.

For example, with the British hangers of mid 18th century, these regarded as 'official' patterns were actually recognizing the two ubiquitous German style forms in use as depicted in two paintings for illustration of uniforms. The 'pattern' years were taken from the dates of the paintings.

With the colichemarde blade type, it seems to me that while evolved in the 17th century surrounded by a certain amount of 'lore' , it was intended primarily with the intent more pragmatically to respond to dueling or combat. According to some sources, these had fallen out of favor in the private sector by the latter part of first half of 18th c. and generally the trefoil blade had become more standard.

Meanwhile, the military with typical adherence to tradition and the attention to fashion and degree of flamboyance of officers, the colichemarde type blades remained popular with officers well through the 18th century.
The notion of its associations with dueling and robust character naturally appealed to most officers in the expected hubris oriented associations.

Military officers of course privately acquired their weapons, and nominally adhered to regulations in degree, but often notable variations occurred.

PS Radboud, thank you so much for adding these pages from these rather hard to acquire references!!!

[urbanspaceman]

Hi Jim. Here is a Google translation of the text in those pages; unfortunately not in order but easily discerned. I can send you them by email if you wish.