George Washington began each day by deciding which of his swords would be most appropriate for the day’s occasion. Benjamin Franklin gifted one of his swords to a French medical student as a sign of peace.
Provenance Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.Since the United States of America gained its independence some 250 years ago, it has had a deep and profound respect and love for swords, as can be seen in several of its founding fathers. The Confederate sword here was produced at the converted facilities of the Nashville Plow Works-an ironic reversal of the Biblical injunction to beat swords into plowshares. The other was assembled in America, but has a German blade by Weyersberg, a family who were making swords as early as the 1500s-the firm still survives today under the name WKC.Īt the outbreak of war, the Confederacy was able to commandeer some Federal arms, but additional production was often makeshift.
Of the two Federal swords here, one was produced at the Ames factory, America's leading swordmaker at the time. army pattern of 1850, which derived from French military swords of the 1840s. All three of these sabers were based on the U.S. Label Text By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, America was fully able to produce swords domestically, although many blades were still being imported from Germany, and the designs were copied from France. Wooden grip swollen at mid-height, tapering to pommel & spirally wrapped with black fishskin, twisted & plain brass wire. Tall D-shaped knuckle guard pierced at end for sword knot & plugged into Phrygian helmet-shaped pommel carved with oak leaves at its base. Thick short rear comma-shaped quillon bent slightly towards back of blade. Gilt brass 3/4-basket hilt with pierced base plate having scrolling foliation & carved with oak leaves. Both faces similarly etched with trophied groups & scrolling foliation on once blackened ground with American eagle & motto "E Pluribus unum" (obverse), "U.S." (reverse) At about 1/3 length below hilt & extending to about 2/3 of length, both faces of back edge bordered by deeply cut groove. Description Gently curving steel hollow-ground triangular section blade becoming elliptical to spear-shaped point. Markings Reverse of ricasso with stamped mark of Weyersberg crowned head.
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