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Nation : British
Local Price : £2,200.00

On Hold. Georgian light cavalry officer's, 1796 pattern sword. A neo classical hilt design with shagreen, silver wire bound grip with the knuckle-bow guard adorned

Nation : British
Local Price : £2,200.00

Scottish WW1 Field Officer's Broadsword of Brig. Gen. Norman Richard Crockatt, Royal Scots, First Director of MI9, CBE, DSO, MC, MID, Legion of Merit, Legion d’Honneur, Croix de Gu. Straight spear-pointed blade with double fullers 32 5/8 inches in length, 1.1 inches wide at the forte, the sword 39 inches overall. Pierced nickel-plated steel guard with foliate ‘honeysuckle’ decoration also incorporating thistles, and the emblem of the Royal Scots: a figure of St Andrew, holding a crux decussata (a.k.a. the saltire, or St Andrew’s cross, also seen on the Scottish flag). Patron saint of Scotland, St. Andrew was said in medieval tradition to have requested to be crucified on such a cross, as he felt unworthy to be executed in the same manner as Jesus. Wire-bound shagreen grip, chequered backstrap with integral chequered oval pommel, secured by screw with eyelet. No leather washer. Fabric hilt liner with red exterior and white interior. Steel parade scabbard with two hanging rings. The blade is etched at the ricasso on one side with the royal coat of arms above the maker’s mark ‘Henry Wilkinson Pall Mall London’. At the ricasso on the other side is a hexagonal brass proof slug set within an etched six-pointed star - the hexagonal proof slug was used from 1905 onwards to denote Wilkinson’s best quality blades. The spine of the blade at the ricasso is stamped with the serial number ‘44310’, indicating production in 1913. Wilkinson Sword records confirm that sword 44310, described as a ‘Claymore’, was finished on the 9 th October 1913 and sold to ‘R Crockatt, Rl Scots’. The blade is further etched with thistle motifs, the crown and cypher of King George V, ‘Royal Scots’ enclosing a thistle and beneath another crown, and the family crest of the Crockatts: a Dog Sleeping Sable, Spotted Argent (in this instance with a variation of a five-pointed star placed on the dog) above the family motto ‘TAK TENT’ – a Scots phrase meaning ‘take heed’, ‘keep watch’, or ‘beware’. Norman Richard Crockatt was born in 1894. Educated at Rugby School, he went on to attend the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and joined the Royal Scots as a 2 nd Lieutenant in 1913. He disembarked in France with the 2 nd Battalion in August 1914 as part of the British Expeditionary Force and was severely wounded during the Retreat from Mons in the same month. He was promoted to temporary Lieutenant in September 1914, and to Lieutenant in November 1914. He was appointed an Adjutant serving with the Yorkshire Regiment in May 1915 which came with the Territorial rank of temporary Captain – I believe the Adjutant position may have allowed him to first use the field officer’s hilt on his sword. He was mentioned in Dispatches in June 1916. His Adjutant appointment ended in July 1916 when he was assigned a Grade 3 General Staff Officer, still at temporary Captain. He was promoted full Captain in August 1916. He was awarded the Military Cross in the 1917 New Year Honours. He was made a temporary Major in February 1918. He was awarded the Order of the Nile, 4 th Class by the Egyptians for service in Palestine in the latter part of the war. He was again mentioned in Dispatches in both January and June 1919 and awarded the Distinguished Service Order in December 1919. In 1920 he was appointed Adjutant of the 4 th Battalion Royal Scots. Crockatt retired abruptly in 1927 – by one account, walking out in the middle of a staff training course – to become a stockbroker, but was recalled to the Army immediately on the outbreak of WW2 and assigned to the Directorate of Military Intelligence at the rank of Brigadier. He was specifically requested, in fact, by John C F Holland, head of the War Office’s irregular warfare branch ‘MI R’, who had known Crockatt since their schooldays together at Rugby. “ In an age of drab clothes and battledress he [Crockatt] wore at every opportunity the colourful gear of his regiment, the Royal Scots. Moreover, as a former front-line combatant who had also served on the other side of the divide, he could understand and appreciate the antagonism that combatants were likely to feel for the staff, could make allowances for it, and could do his best to reduce it. He was also clear-headed, quick-witted, a good organiser, a good judge of men, and no respecter of red tape: excellent qualities for his early struggles in the War Office. ” [MI9 by Foot and Langley, 1979] In December 1939 Holland recommended Crockatt to be the first director of the newly formed MI9. This secret unit was tasked with assisting in the escape and repatriation of Allied troops that had been captured or were stranded behind enemy lines – or rather would be captured, once fighting began in earnest. In doing so Holland deliberately went against suggestions to appoint an officer with experience escaping captivity, deciding they would be prejudiced by personal experiences. While never an escapee, Crockatt was by no means short of ideas. He later explained his objectives for MI9 as follows: To facilitate escapes of British prisoners of war, thereby getting back service personnel and containing additional enemy manpower on guard duties. To facilitate the return to the United Kingdom of those who succeeded in evading capture in enemy occupied territory. To collect and distribute information. To assist in the denial of information to the enemy. To maintain morale of British prisoners of war in enemy prison camps. Crockatt believed that the new war required a new philosophy throughout all the armed forces: while British troops had mostly remained quietly in prisoner of war camps during WW1, based on an honour-driven understanding of surrender which had been largely reciprocated by their enemies, ‘escape-mindedness’ now needed to be trained into British soldiers of all ranks in all services, with programs instituted to that effect. He insisted that ‘A fighting man remains a fighting man, whether in enemy hands or not, and his duty to continue fighting overrides everything else’. To understand potential escape methods Crockatt brought in experienced British escapees of WW1 to give lectures to MI9, and sourced fifty books from the British Museum with accounts of such escapes. The books he sent to his old school, Rugby, where sixth-formers wrote synopses of the material which MI9 then synthesised into training manuals. The resulting training courses, conducted by MI9’s ‘IS9’ division, were focused most heavily on the Royal Air Force, whose pilots were proportionately rarer and more valuable assets. A course at RAF Highgate distilled Crockatt’s new mindset thus: “ Only as a last resort should you be in a position of being captured. Your job is to fight – and only through wounds, lack of ammunition or food should you ever allow yourself to be captured. Should you be captured, it must be your firm and constant determination to escape at the earliest opportunity – to bring back information to our people. ” [Specimen Lecture for Army Units on Conduct if Cut Off from Unit or Captured, WO 208/3242] For escape-mindedness to succeed in practice troops would need new escape technology: to this end Crockatt recruited technical experts Charles Fraser-Smith and Clayton Hutton into the new ‘Q’ unit, to design devices to assist stranded British soldiers in their escape and evasion. Hutton described his new boss as ‘suave, well groomed and shrewd’. When Hutton asked how he should set about producing escape tools, Crockatt replied simply: ‘It’s entirely up to you. There are no previous plans to work from and no official records… Put on your thinking cap, do as you like.’ This unit and its ‘Q-devices’ directly inspired Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, the character of Q being an amalgam of Crockatt’s two technicians. There were at that time still no POWs needing help, but this changed rapidly from May 1940 with the German invasions of Belgium and France and MI9’s resources were increased. Crockatt oversaw the development of numerous ‘escape lines’ which ferried thousands of escapees and downed airmen back to Britain. Many of these had emerged organically out of local resistance but needed logistical support, extra personnel and improved security. MI9 was initially headquartered in rooms at the Metropole and Great Central Hotels in London, but the Metropole was hit by urban bombing in September 1940 and Crockatt opted to move the unit into the countryside, requisitioning Wilton Park House in Buckinghamshire in October, which was close to his own home in Ashley Green but not too far from London. To keep the escape lines running up to date information on the state of enemy territory was essential and MI9’s purview expanded to interrogation of enemy prisoners (as well as civilians seeking to enter Britain) and debriefing of successful escapees, this work gradually increasing the unit’s value as a source of intelligence in its own right. This was reflected in Crockatt’s promotion to Colonel in 1941, taking the new position of Deputy Director of Military Intelligence (Prisoners of War). The interrogations unit for enemy soldiers, ‘MI9a’ was spun off in December 1941 into an independent but associated agency, MI19. The work of MI9 in Europe occupied most of its attention and resources given its proximity, but it should be emphasised that it oversaw escape operations in most other theatres of the war despite the even greater difficulties of operating outside Europe. Crockatt was only able to oversee these at arm’s length, but wherever British forces were captured MI9 played a role, including the Middle East, North Africa, Russia, Burma and occupied areas of China. Major General Carl Spaatz of the United States Army Air Force first met with Crockatt in 1942, which began the development of the American equivalent to MI9, MIS-X. Spaatz and his appointees, including the academic W. Stull Holt and businessman Edward Johnston, formed a highly productive relationship with Crockatt. Holt in particular was impressed with Crockatt’s leadership and organisation, leading him to make the bold decision that MIS-X would use and support the British escape lines, rather than trying to establish their own competing system. Likewise American training programs were heavily based on the British model. The end result was that British and American captives were able to collaborate on escape efforts and make it home by the same routes. “ Crockatt’s own impressive personality counted for much in this. Not only did he stimulate Holt; he made a tremendous hit in Washington (and, in passing, in New York) when they both visited America from 28 January to 15 March 1943. His bonnet and tartan trews and the panache with which he wore them enhanced the originality, almost the eccentricity, of his approach to war; people felt in him the practical daring of a young Lochinvar. ” [Foot and Langley, 1979] Crockatt repaid the compliment a year later when Holt was nearly ousted from his position in a Pentagon turf war, intervening with American leaders on his behalf to save a productive partnership. After Lt Airey Neave made his famous escape from Colditz Castle in 1942, he was recruited immediately into MI9. Brigadier Crockatt met with him at the famous Rules restaurant in London, dressed in his full Royal Scots dress uniform and medals. It was apparently a habit of Crockatt’s to hold any conversation that might get awkward in Rules, a public place with good food naturally cooling the temper. Neave wrote in his memoirs that Crockatt ‘was a real soldier and I liked him immediately.’ Crockatt tasked Neave to MI9’s new Room 900 section which would train new agents to establish fresh escape routes, telling him frankly ‘You will look after secret communications with occupied Europe and training of agents. It won’t be a bed of roses.’ True to form, Crockatt left Neave to his work free of operational interference. Crockatt visited the Asian theatre for the first time in late 1944, where he took the opportunity to visit his son Dick, who was serving with the Royal Scots in Burma. Personal feelings from this meeting overflowed into a personal letter from Crockatt to his American counterpart in MIS-X Ed Johnston, complaining about the lack of co-ordination he’d found between the two agencies’ Asian branches: ‘I wish to God people would forget about themselves and their nationalities and get on with this bloody war, so that you and I could get our boys back.’ Crockatt was considered a highly effective leader at MI9, combining traditional military efficiency with forward thinking and a light touch to command & control of the various specialists and mavericks he recruited. He constructed an entirely new branch of the intelligence service with a unique overlap of logistics and spycraft, with limited manpower and resources and despite friction with more established units, particularly MI6. J. M. Langley, who ran IS9, wrote that Crockatt ‘attracted an immediate loyalty and devotion of all who served under him’ and noted that he argued in favour of perilous operations like the rescue of escape line organiser Lt Ian Garrow on a matter of principle, believing ‘that Ian’s magnificent work and self-sacrifice should be recognized by some effort to save him from almost certain death in a concentration camp’. 26,190 British and Commonwealth troops escaped from Europe alone thanks to the intervention of MI9, and it is estimated that 90% of troops that evaded initial capture in Europe were successfully rescued by them. Some authors have considered Crockatt lacking in the ruthless attitude of other intelligence officials, however, focusing on prisoner welfare even when more aggressive operations might have secured more escapes. He refused, for instance, to hide any escape materials in Red Cross shipments in case the enemy responded by banning the organisation’s crucial deliveries. Fake charities were used instead even at the risk of increased scrutiny. He had at all times to balance furthering MI9’s mission with the fear that reprisals or outright massacres might be carried out against prisoners of war if the enemy leadership was sufficiently provoked. More controversial were his orders to British prisoners held in Italy in 1943 to ‘stay put’ in prison camps even if their guards began to abandon their posts, a stark contrast to his own stated philosophy. There were good explanations for this policy: it would make it easier for Allied forces to find the prisoners and prevent the known problem of chaos and hardship when hordes of servicemen were left to wander the countryside without supplies. It was believed that the 80,000 prisoners in Italy might be in poor physical condition and the Allied advance through Italy was expected to be relatively swift. Reprisals were still a possibility and the senior intelligence community was by that time aware of the existence of extermination camps that could have killed soldiers en masse. True to form, Crockatt was more concerned with keeping men safe than speeding their return. What was less explicable was that he neglected to inform the War Cabinet of this order. After good initial progress, when the Allied advance stalled at the Gustav Line about 50,000 prisoners still remained in their camps even while German troops arrived to replace the fled Italians, resulting in some prisoners being resecured or transported away to other camps when they might have escaped. Churchill was dismayed at this outcome and ordered an SAS operation to find and rescue those who had left the camps, which largely failed. Crockatt retired from heading MI9 in June 1945, succeeded by Brig. Sam Derry. MI9 continued its work repatriating freed soldiers and gathering intelligence from them, particularly focusing on evidence of war crimes to be prosecuted at the upcoming tribunals, as well as locating, rewarding and honouring the various civilian ‘helpers’ who assisted in the escape lines at great personal risk. Some MI9 personnel went on to form the Joint Reserve Reconnaissance Unit, an intelligence unit specialising in battlefield surveillance and nuclear targeting. This later became 23 Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve), which during the Cold War was planned to man hidden stay-behind observation posts if Soviet forces overran Western Germany. 23 SAS still exists today under the umbrella of UK Special Forces. Being head of a secret organisation Crockatt received little public fanfare, but a number of honours did come his way. He was recommended for a CBE in the 1945 Birthday Honours by the Director of Military Intelligence Sir John Sinclair, his recommendation declaring that Crockatt ‘built up from zero the most effective inter-service Intelligence organisation which exists’. As well as ‘spontaneous and unstinted testimonials from the other Services and certain Government departments’ Sinclair noted ‘the marked appreciation of several US General Officers’ for Crockatt’s work. For their part the Americans bestowed Crockatt with the US Legion of Merit (Officer degree) and for his service to the French people he received both the Legion d’Honneur (Chevalier class) and the Croix de Guerre (with palm). In later life he became director of the Attock Oil Company, and was appointed a member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland. Brigadier General Crockatt died in October 1956, aged 62. As Brigadier Dudley Clarke, the head of MI9’s Middle Eastern operations, wrote in 1941: “ In war it is given to few soldiers to be able to serve simultaneously the causes of humanity and country. All who work for MI9 have this special privilege, and few calls can have more appeal than that to rescue those whom the Fortunes of war have abandoned to the enemy. ” The traditionally-styled Scottish broadsword was carried only by Highland infantry regiments until 1881, when the Lowland regiments also adopted Scottish dress and the broadsword along with it (with the exception of the Cameronians). The use of an interchangeable hilt may date back to the 1860s, but is first officially mentioned in the Dress Regulations of 1883, which authorized the Highland Light Infantry to use the basket hilt for full-dress occasions and the cross-bar hilt for all other occasions. Field Officers and other mounted officers were entitled to use a third hilt, the form of which varied by regiment: this design, a symmetrical basket hilt with thistle designs and the regimental badge, was used by the Royal Scots, Royal Scots Fusiliers, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Gordon Highlanders and Highland Light infantry. See plate 178 on page 186 of Swords of the British Army by Robson for another example of the Royal Scots model. The hilt could be changed by unscrewing the pommel nut, removing the pommel, grip and guard, then replacing each with the other version. The blade is bright with a high reflective polish, no edge damage and no significant patination, some light scratching towards the tip, none affecting the etching which is crisp and retains the contrast between the matt acid-etched background and the reflective polished designs within it – the custom family crest panel has an interesting darker grey background applied in the etching that makes it stand out even more. The regimental hilt is undamaged and retains almost all of its bright nickel plating, with wear only at spots along its edges exposing patinated steel. The shagreen of the grip is all present with light handling wear and no scale losses, the grip wires are all present and tight. The interchangeable hilt is securely screwed in place. The scabbard has a few small spots of patination towards the chape end and some very light scratches from carry. The fabric of the hilt liner retains bright colours, particularly the red showing through the pierced guard, with some rubbing to the inner edge and surface-level cracking on the inner surface where it curls at the pommel end.

Nation : British
Local Price : 2995.00 USD

Late 16th Century Norwegian Tessak (sinclair) Basket Hilt Saber (sword)!. Here is a very nice circa 1580 – 1600 Norwegian Tessak saber, also called a Sinclair saber. A wonderful designed early sword in as found condition. Nice patina with very fine speckled pitting overall and good use wear.. Wonderful forged iron full basket hilt hilt with optic properties! No breaks or repairs! The beautifully carved wood grip is excellent. (note: these grips were always covered with a thin leather or fish skin covering. Not the twisted wire and Turks head ferrules you will see on the re-wraps). Its wide, single fuller blade is 31.5” long and retains traces of a crescent moon and written script engravings. NOTE: This is a full, symmetrical basket, not a half basket or 3/4 basket. It is a very scarce and desirable example! A very nice specimen for the advanced collector at a very reasonable price! Price is firm. Thanks for looking! Make sure to see our other listings for more great early blades and early antiques!

Nation : British
Local Price : $2,995.00

Silver Inlaid Pillow Sword, ca. 1660, Probably English. This type of sword often called a “pillow sword” due to its small size and the thought that it could be hidden under one’s pillow to protect against an intruder. The smaller flattened hilt would certainly make it easier to hide under a pillow, though there is no known evidence to support this type of sword being used in this way. Alternatively, the sword would be right at home with a gentleman at court. This example features a chiseled iron hilt, with short down-curved rounded quillons. 4-sided ovoid pommel with button, and grip wrapped with alternating plain and twisted silver wire, finished with Turks heads top and bottom. Hilt is blackened with solid silver inlaid decoration depicting foliage and fruits, surrounded by tiny silver pellets. Double-edged 30 1/8” (76.5 cm) blade of lens section with central fuller and long ricasso showing faint traces of engraved decoration. Hilt retains nearly all of its original blackening and silver inlay, wire wrap slightly loose at the top, and remains of wax in recesses. Blade with very light pitting and age staining. Overall length 36” (91.5 cm). High quality sword in very good condition for its age.

Nation : Italian
Local Price : $2,995.00

Italian Town Sword, Rapier, Mid-17th C. Iron hilt with fluted down-turned shell guard; large scrolled and chiseled reverse quillon and fluted quillon block. Knuckle bow chiseled ensuite, attaching to the pommel with a single screw. Faceted ovoid pommel, chiseled with scroll work and chevrons; large button finial (piece missing from the reverse). Original grip wrap made of twisted iron wire of different sizes (minor losses), with turks heads top and bottom; never having been apart. Old professional brazed repair to the quillon. Double edged diamond-section blade of 40″ (101.6 cm) length with tiny maker’s mark. Shows great age, with light pitting and dark patina. Overall length 46 1/4″ (117.5 cm). Fine and decorative rapier. Provenance: The esteemed Russell Char Collection, Las Vegas.

Nation : British
Local Price : £2150.00

A Simply Fabulous Original Antique Napoleonic Wars Sword Of The King of Spain's Elite, Heavy Cavalry Regiment. Used In The Spanish Peninsular Campaign, During Napoleon's Peninsular War in 1808 Until 1814. In Superb Condition.. From the invasion of Spain by Napoleon's forces, in 1808. The Peninsular War involved over 127 battles and engagements against Napoleon and the armies under his command, and this sword may well have been used in dozens of these ferocious conflicts A fabulous, original, example of these very scarce Napoleonic, Spanish heavy cavalry long blade broadsword. A sword based Spanish late 18th century broadsword. The hilt is in superb order, with excellent wire bound grip and large shaped bowl, as is the very long broadsword blade. In 1796 (although there is a controversy around the precise date) a new model sword for Spanish cavalry troopers was adopted. This beautiful example, showing very classic lines and a very similar construction to the previous pattern, presents an almost full cup-hilt in a rapier style, curved quillons and knuckle-bow. The blade was very similar to that of 1728 pattern, having these dimensions: length 940 mm, width 35, thickness 6 mm. Alongside the later 1803 pattern change, these swords were predominantly used by cavalry at the Battle of Bailen {and subsequent battles}. It was the crushing defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armee in the Spanish invasion. The Battle of Bailen Fought July 19, 1808, between 15,000 Spaniards under Castaflos, and 20,000 French under Dupont. The French were totally defeated with a loss of over 2,000 men, and Dupont surrendered with his whole army. The Battle of Bailen was contested in 1808 between the Spanish Army of Andalusia, led by Generals Francisco Castanos and Theodor von Reding, and the Imperial French Army's II corps d'observation de la Gironde under General Pierre Dupont de l'Etang. The heaviest fighting took place near Bailen (sometimes anglicised Baylen), a village by the Guadalquivir river in the Jaen province of southern Spain. In June 1808, following the widespread uprisings against the French occupation of Spain, Napoleon organised French units into flying columns to pacify Spain's major centres of resistance. One of these, under General Dupont, was dispatched across the Sierra Morena and south through Andalusia to the port of Cadiz where an French naval squadron lay at the mercy of the Spanish. The Emperor was confident that with 20,000 men, Dupont would crush any opposition encountered on the way. Events proved otherwise, and after storming and plundering Cordoba in July, Dupont retraced his steps to the north of the province to await reinforcements. Meanwhile, General Castanos, commanding the Spanish field army at San Roque, and General von Reding, Governor of Malaga, travelled to Seville to negotiate with the Seville Junta a patriotic assembly committed to resisting the French incursions?and to turn the province's combined forces against the French. Dupont's failure to leave Andalusia proved disastrous. Between 16 and 19 July, Spanish forces converged on the French positions stretched out along villages on the Guadalquivir and attacked at several points, forcing the confused French defenders to shift their divisions this way and that. With Castanos pinning Dupont downstream at Andujar, Reding successfully forced the river at Mengibar and seized Bailen, interposing himself between the two wings of the French army. Caught between Castanos and Reding, Dupont attempted vainly to break through the Spanish line at Bailen in three bloody and desperate charges, losing more than 2,500 men. His counterattacks defeated, Dupont called for an armistice and was compelled to sign the Convention of Andujar which stipulated the surrender of almost 18,000 men, making Bailen the worst disaster and capitulation of the Peninsular War, and the first major defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armee. When news of the catastrophe reached the French high command in Madrid, the result was a general retreat to the Ebro, abandoning much of Spain to the insurgents. France's enemies in Spain and throughout Europe cheered at this first check to the hitherto unbeatable Imperial armies tales of Spanish heroism inspired Austria and showed the force of nation-wide resistance to Napoleon, setting in motion the rise of the Fifth Coalition against France. The Portuguese and Spanish played an important part in the war. Retrained and reorganised by Marshal William Beresford, Portugal’s soldiers fought bravely alongside those of Britain. The stubborn Spanish defence of cities and towns tied down thousands of French troops. Spanish armies, though frequently defeated, kept reappearing, forcing France to send more armies against them. French troops were also required to garrison hostile territory and wage a bitter war against Spanish and Portuguese insurgents, the ‘guerrillas’. French communications and supply lines were harassed by their raids and ambushes. By 1812, the French had over 350,000 soldiers in Iberia, but 200,000 were protecting lines of supply rather than serving as front-line troops. All of these factors meant that although on paper the French heavily outnumbered the British armies in Iberia, they were never able to concentrate enough of their troops to win a decisive victory. The continual drain on French resources led Napoleon to call the conflict the ‘Spanish Ulcer’. Painting in the gallery by Theodore Gericault. Of a wounded cuirassier, said to be a French cuirassier at the Battle of Bailen. We also show a print of the Spanish Heavy Cavalry of the Line Trooper, 1804, holding his identical sword

Nation : British
Local Price : £2,150.00

English 1755 Dragoon Back Sword. English 1755 Dragoon Back Sword, the steel plate hilt with unique cut design, dome pommel and raised tang button. Leather covered grip with age wear is secured with twisted brass wire and turks heads to top and bottom. The straight blade single edged with central fuller running the full length of the blade, overall length 41.25 inch the blade 35 inches. For reference please see Swords and Sword makers of England and Scotland by Richards Bezdek page 283

Nation : British
Local Price : £2150

Fine English Silver Hilted Small Sword by John Bennett Hallmarked for 1762 / 1763 mounted with a Boat Shell Hilt and Colichemarde Blade. A fine silver hilted smallsword by John Bennett date-stamped for 1762 / 1763. The bold hilt is of boat shell type which was one of the most robust hilt designs adopted by the London silver hilted small sword makers working in the 18th century. The sword is mounted with a broad robust colichemarde blade. John Bennett was one of the most renowned 18th century London silversmith / cutlers but surviving swords made by him are generally encountered less frequently than those of his competitors. The dish guard, pommel and ricasso are shaped en suite with well executed gadrooned lines and borders. The baluster shaped wooden grip is diagonally bound with silver strip interspaced with a double length of roped silver wire. The broad colichemarde blade is of stiff triangular section and retains is clearly engraved panels of strapwork near the hilt. The four hallmarks are stamped onto the knucklebow near the hilt. These consist of the maker's mark “I . B” with a pellet between in raised relief inside a depressed rectangular panel, the lion passant mark, the crowned leopard's head assay mark and the date stamp. The hilt is as much an example of the high standards of design and execution required of the 18th century London silversmith and cutler as it is of an effective weapon. Silver hilted small swords were fashionable attire for 18th century gentlemen. Mostly worn for effect, someone wearing such a sword was also announcing to the world that he could use it. Despite the stylish and delicate appearance of these swords they were formidable dueling weapons. . There are some minor light blackened patches of old pitting near the middle of the blade but otherwise the sword is in fine condition overall. There are no losses or repairs to the hilt which has maintained its original pleasing outline. The blade is 30.5 inches (80 cm) long and overall the sword is 37.25 inches (94.5 cm) long. John Bennett was one of the most influential and foremost makers of silver hilted swords working in London in the middle of the 18th century and made swords for the London social and military elites. He and his son (John Bennett II) were also gunsmiths, jewellers and goldsmiths. They were based at Threadneedle Street in the City of London. Both were prominent members of the Cutlers’ Company and served in all the major posts including Master. John Bennett (I) lived from 1708/9 to 1774. In 1723 he started his apprenticeship with John Carmen, another important London silver hilted sword maker. He was sworn free of the Cutlers’ Company in 1731 and entered his first mark of “I B” inside a rectangle in the Smallworkers’ Book at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1732. John Bennett’s second known mark was entered in 1761, same as the first, with a pellet between the letters, which is the mark on this sword. The mark of John Bennett (II) may have been similar. However, the date stamp of 1762/1763 on this sword predates his freedom to practice in his own right from when he was sworn free of the Cutlers’ Company in 1765. As a result the mark on this sword is most certainly by John Bennett (I). For other silver hilted small swords by John Bennett see Leslie Southwick, “London Silver-hilted Swords”, Royal Armouries, 2001, and for further information on his working life of see page 45.