An officer small sword

Museum: Feldman Family Museum

The straight blade is made of plain steel. It is single-edged with a fuller in the upper half, and double-edged, lenticular in section in the lower half. The blade point is located on the midline. In the upper part, the blade is decorated with engraved and gilded vignettes on a blued background. On the base, the blade on the right side is engraved with the maker's mark, which is the letters ISB. The silver hilt consists of a grip and a guard. The grip is completely wrapped in twisted silver wire. The pommel is formed as an antique helmet. The guard is formed by a knuckle-bow that passes into a cross-guard with two ends, and a heart-shaped cup with edges bent up and down. The middle part of the knuckle-bow is decorated with images of a lictor's beam and a sabre on one side, and with an image of antique weapons with crossed banners on the other. On the outer half of the cup, there is an overhead grenade image on top. No scabbard.

COMMENT. The presented item is a French sword of a guards grenadier officer of the Directory period, 1794-1799 (see Lhoste, J. Les Épées Portées en France: Des Origines á Nos Jours. – La Tour du Pin, 1997. – P. 228). Edged weapons of this period enjoys special attention among collectors. It is presented only in single examples even in large museum collections. The small sword is of great historical and cultural value primarily as a fairly well-preserved example of the Napoleonic era edged weapons.