Thomas Del Mar - Arms & Armour

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A FINE AND RARE SCOTTISH BACK-SWORD WITH
BASKET HILT SIGNED BY WALTER ALLAN OF STIRLING,
SECOND QUARTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY
with straight blade double-edged for the last portion,
stamped ‘Andria Farara’ over a pair of long slender fullers
and cut with a pair of shorter fullers on each face, steel
basket-hilt of moulded wavy bars joined at a ring beneath
the pommel, comprising forward guard formed of a pair of
bars, main knuckle-guard formed of a broad plate pierced
with three horizontal panels of slipped circles alternating with
diamonds in the top and bottom panels and quatrefoils in
the centre, all framed with a broad flute top and bottom,
side-guard formed of a central panel pierced with circular
arrangements of hearts enclosed by a ramshorn finial top
and bottom (one bar on one side and two on the other
cracked), additional rear guard (two bars with early repairs),
scrolling wrist guard (repaired), stamped with the maker’s
initials and the letter ‘S’ beneath the rear quillon (the first
253
letter obscured), enriched throughout with wrigglework and
incised circles, bun-shaped pommel cut with diagonal fluting
framed by incised lines, original sharkskin-covered grip
bound with silver ribband, with a shaped silver collar top and
bottom, and complete with an early red felt doeskin liner
90.2cm; 35I in blade
Inv. no. E036.
Literature:
Cyril Mazansky, British Basket-Hilted Swords, Suffolk 2005,
p. 157, illustrated.
Walter Allan was admitted freeman of the Incorporation of
Hammermen of Stirling in 1732 and became Deacon of the
same in 1737. For a discussion of this maker see W. Reid
1963, pp.16-21. A number of comparable swords signed by
this maker and with blades signed in a similar manner are
illustrated in Culloden 1996, pp. 40-43.
£5000-6000
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