Naval Officer's Sword

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-738

Naval officer’s sword with slightly curved pipe-backed blade and false edge.

Gilt brass hilt with ivory grip, pierced half-basket guard embossed with foliage patterns and crown over a foul anchor; the hilt has no pommel but a pommel and backpiece. The scabbard, which was lost, can be seen on an old photograph. It had a brass locket and top locket; the top locket was adorned with a crown over a foul anchor, a shell-shaped frog stud and a suspension ring.

This is a Dutch naval officer’s sword (1843 pattern), which was derived from the French naval officer’s sword of 1837. It was replaced by one with a new hilt in 1882, because an officer using the 1843 pattern sword received a hand wound in a fight on the Aceh coast.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 738; W.E. May and P.G.W. Annis, Swords for Sea Service, 2 vols., London 1970, p. 171, pl. 119; J.P. Puype, Blanke wapens. Nederlandse slag- en steekwapens sinds 1600 … , Lochem/Popperinge 1981, pp. 15, 18, figs. 124, 247

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Manufacture de Klingenthal, Naval Officer's Sword, Klingenthal (Alsace), 1843 - 1858', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244552