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Bayonet 2017-278
Military Plug Bayonet
Bayonet 2017-278

Military Plug Bayonet

Dateca. 1685-1690
OriginEngland
MediumSteel, iron, rosewood and brass
DimensionsOverall Length: 18 1/2" Blade: 12 11/16" x 1 5/8" Hilt: 5 3/4"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, Mitchell Arms and Military Accoutrements Fund
Object number2017-278
DescriptionEnglish non-Ordnance military plug bayonet with broad single-edged blade with a false edge. Turned rosewood grip with swollen bottom section, and punch-decorated gilt brass mounts including baluster pommel, turned ferrule and recurved crossguard.
Label TextBelieved to have borrowed the name of the French city of Bayonne, the bayonet rose to prominence as a vital military weapon during the last half of the 17th c. Arriving in Virginia in the 1670s, the first of the type are referred to as “plug” bayonets, being little more than daggers with tapered handles which were “plugged” into the muzzles of the muskets. Earlier iron-mounted examples were quickly replaced by cast-brass hilted bayonets by the late 1680s, and all were obsolete shortly thereafter.

Once British cutlers began to produce bayonets with brass hilts, a myriad of decorative versions appeared, including those with tiny human and animal’s heads and mythical figures. Before 1690, a plain class of plug bayonets had been developed for common soldiers that included a recurved crossguard with swollen quillons, ending in a rounded point. The guard on this example is almost identical to the relic excavated at the Wetherburn Site, and serves to illustrate what the complete weapon would have looked like when it arrived in Virginia, perhaps in the late 17th c.
MarkingsOne side of blade struck three times with an elongated dagger, the "foreigners" mark of the London Company of Cutler. The other side is struck with a Solingen-style King's head, facing to the left.