French Sword, Smallsword, c. 1760
A beautifully preserved pairing of a standard 1760's military smallsword hilt with a late 17th century transitional rapier blade. Overall 39 1/2", 1 lb., 1 oz., balancing nicely at 2" above the cross. The brass hilt retains nearly all of its russeted and gilded finish (worn down on the inside of the shell guards); the copper wrap and Turk's head knots are tight and secure, as is the entire assembly. The 33" blade has a uniformly tapered convex section, bright gray patina, scattered light to medium pitting and 6" fullers inscribed "En Toledo" (outboard) and "Tomas Ayala" (inboard). This is almost certainly not the work of of the famous Toledo bladesmith, but a well crafted, wonderfully supple piece of high quality steel whose maker indulged in the sort of copyright infringement so common to the age - comparable to the many German-made "Andrea Ferarra" blades on older Scottish basket hilts. Possibly the blade was passed down within a family or simply purchased through a cutler; the marriage of these relatively delicate transitional "town sword" blades with smallsword hilts had both a practical and prestige appeal, but examples in this state of preservation are fairly scarce. The scabbard has lost about 7" at the end, but has nicely preserved leather, intact stitching, and remnants of gilding/russeting that match the hilt.
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