Maritiem Digitaal
collectie zoeksyteem van de maritieme musea
geen titel
| titel | geen titel
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| inventarisnummer | WPN1345
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| collectie | Edged Weapons
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| museum | National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
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| datum | 1783
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| omschrijving | Dutch cutlass- the hilt of the cutlass consists of a brass open half-basket guard. The guard is secured to the pommel by a screw and leads to a short straight quillon- which has a small upturned disc terminal. The smooth pommel and back-piece lead to a lightly straightened ferrule and a prominent tang button. The black leather grip is bound at intervals with plaited brass wire. The steel blade is short- straight and broad with a double edge leading to a uniform spear point- bearing at the shoulder three broad shallow fullers. From the 46mm deep shoulder of the blade a broad shallow fuller runs 178mm towards the point in the centre of the blade. The obverse and reverse of the blade are engraved with scroll and foliage motifs- and the numbers '1 7 8 3' and two stylised anchors in a saltire (diagonal cross) with the letter 'A'- on the left- and the letter 'W' on the right. The brown leather scabbard is sewn down the back and has a brass top locket and chape. The scabbard is decorated with a line of blind tooling near each edge and is fitted with a frog hook secured inside by a metal tongue. The frog hook is decorated with two pairs of engraved horizontal lines.
It is likely that the cutlass is a version of the 1771 'Sarbe d'Artllerie de la Marine' pattern with its Roman style blade. Unlike the uniform type cutlass- it has no lion's-head pommel. Although the hilt of the cutlass is of the 1783 style of 'boarding cutlers' the curved blade does not follow the same style. This may be- therefore- a re-hilted 1771 weapon. The anchor motif was popular in France for naval weapons but the letters 'A' and. 'W.' do not look French- nor do they fit in with the style of the rest of the engraving. The numbers '1 7 8 3' may refer to the date of manufacture and it is likely that they were added later. The metal parts of the scabbard- apart from the frog hook- are very roughly finished and are not in the same style as the rest of the cutlass. It is therefore likely that they are a later addition or a repair- perhaps done on board ship.
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| afmetingen | Blade: 641 x 44 mm
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