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Silver-mounted Plug Bayonet

Dateca. 1690

Hilt Fittings by William Knight

Blade by John Hathaway

OriginEngland, London

MediumSteel, iron, rosewood, and silver

DimensionsOverall: 17 9/16" Blade: 11 9/16" x 1 3/8" Hilt: 5 9/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2020-18

DescriptionEnglish officer's-grade plug bayonet with a hollow single-edged blade made with a crisp false edge and a prominent ricasso. The finely turned rosewood grip has a swollen bottom section set between raised mouldings and its nicely worked silver mounts include a crossguard and pommel terminating in helmeted heads and a baluster-shaped ferrule.
Label TextThe earliest bayonet to enter military service was the "plug" bayonet. Simply a knife with a tapered handle that could be plugged into the muzzle of a musket, these dual-purpose daggers had become common in the British regiments by the last quarter of the 17th century. Those made after the mid-1680s for officers and senior non-commissioned officers were often beautifully crafted from expensive materials. With a finely turned rosewood grip and well-finished silver mounts, this example set with three helmeted-heads is far more elaborate than those made for the common soldier. It's single-edged blade has concave faces, another marker of superior quality and a functional feature which adds rigidity and strength. Completely supplanted by the cold and utilitarian socket bayonet before 1720, the elegant British plug bayonet entered into obsolesce after only a few decades of use on the battlefield.
MarkingsBoth sides of the blade are struck with the "blazing star" mark assigned by the Cutler's Company of London to John Hathaway. The hilt maker's mark of William Knight (Grimwade-1877), being a raised 'WK' within a shield, is struck once on the ferrule and four times on the crossguard (at each of the quillon junctions).
ProvenanceFrom the William Keith Neal collection (E10), sold by Bonham's Knightsbridge (London), November 10, 2005, Lot 1.