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171 172<br />
171<br />
A FINE SILVER-HILTED SMALL-SWORD RETAILED BY<br />
MATTHEW FEESEY, PALL MALL, LONDON SILVER<br />
HALLMARKS FOR 1744-45, MAKER’S MARK TB, POSSIBLY<br />
FOR THOMAS BAMFORD<br />
with colichemarde blade engraved with strapwork panels at<br />
the forte, silver hilt cast and chased with rococo ornament<br />
in low relief, comprising double shell-guard decorated with<br />
elaborate scrolls and foliage partly enclosing a lion mask on<br />
each side of the blade, the inner face decorated with<br />
grotesque masks and scrolls of shell ornament carrying<br />
garlands, the quillon-block, knuckle-guard and pommel<br />
each decorated with further designs of scrolls, masks and<br />
shell ornament, globular quillon chiselled with foliage, a<br />
pair of slender arms each chiselled with foliage at the tips,<br />
and original silver grip of plaited silver wire bound with a<br />
chased silver collar top and bottom, in its original wooden<br />
scabbard covered with tooled leather (now broken), with<br />
silver locket and chape, the former signed by the retailer<br />
(suspension button missing), and with an early silver<br />
bullion sword knot<br />
81.2cm; 32in blade<br />
Matthew Feesey is recorded as a sword cutler in Pall Mall<br />
circa 1703-69. The silver-mounted ‘State Sword’ of General<br />
George Washington preserved at Mount Vernon, Virginia is<br />
signed by him. An almost identical sword with London<br />
hallmarks for 1746-7 (and an unclear maker’s mark) is<br />
preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,<br />
inv. nr. 1991.115. See L. Southwick 2001, pp.106-107 and<br />
D.J.LaRocca 1998, p.33. Another sword from this group<br />
belonging to Admiral George, the Sixth Earl of Northesk<br />
and hallmarked for 1747-48 was sold Christie’s, 19th<br />
October 1977, lot 42.<br />
£1200-1800<br />
172<br />
A CONTINENTAL SILVER-HILTED SMALL-SWORD, CIRCA<br />
1780, PROBABLY FRENCH<br />
with colichemarde blade etched and gilt with trophies over<br />
the forte, silver hilt cast and chased in low relief,<br />
comprising oval shell-guard pierced with an arrangement of<br />
scrolling tendrils within a pair of entwined ropework<br />
frames, straight quillons with flat swollen terminals,<br />
knuckle-guard and a pair of arms all chased with<br />
scrollwork, the latter struck with two marks, in an oval a<br />
rampant lion facing dexter and the letter B crowned in a<br />
shaped cartouche, pierced quillon block, and openwork<br />
pommel decorated with an expanded flowerhead and<br />
tendrils en suite, with a later grip bound with twisted<br />
copper wire and ribband<br />
80.5cm; 31N in blade<br />
£1200-1800<br />
75
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