Images(8)

Cavalry Broadsword

Dateca. 1700-1720

OriginEngland and Europe

MediumSteel, iron, brass and wood

DimensionsOverall: 41 1/4" Blade: 34 1/4" x 1 13/16" Hilt: 7 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1937-7

DescriptionLarge brass hilt composed of a heart-shaped guard with reinforced edges, vestigial languets, a plain knucklebow, a bulbous quillon and an ovoid pommel with a capstan. Wooden grip is wrapped with twisted brass wire, secured at either end by brass wire "turk's head" keepers. Between bottom of grip and guard is a cast brass thumbring. The blade is straight, double-edged and very wide, with short fullers running down its center.
Label TextThe first cast-brass hilted military swords appeared around 1680, and mimicked their earlier iron-hilted counterparts. Easier and cheaper to make than hilts of iron, those made from this yellow metal could be cast with integral decoration and polished to a high golden sheen. This example exhibits an early version of the "heart" shaped counterguard and a large bulbous pommel. During its day, it was considered a fine sword for a mounted soldier, with its long and very broad double edged blade. Fragments of similar swords have been found throughout Virginia, including an example from the wreck of the Betsy, sunk off Yorktown in 1781.
MarkingsBoth sides of blade struck with **M*I*V*N*I** within the fullers, and with the "running wolf" at the end of each fuller.