Cavalry Broadsword

Dateca.1690-1710

MediumSteel, brass, wood and iron

DimensionsBlade: 33 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1937-8

DescriptionCavalry sabre with a very broad, double-edged blade set with a medial ridge separating slightly concave faces on each side, and a short, heavy ricasso. Cast brass hilt consisting of a spherical pommel with turned mouldings and an integral foot and capstan. The plain knucklebow joins the bilobate counterguard with short struts, and a lobed quillon is at the opposite end. Vestigial langets on the bottom of the guard help support the blade where the tang enters the hilt. Twisted brass wire bound wooden grip with a "Turk's head" keeper on either end, now missing much of its narrower strands (only the heaviest pair remains).
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, of common pattern found in both metals, is distinguished by two ovoid guards connected to a large spherical pommel by a knucklebow and two side-struts. 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.