This sabre is another one of those Georgian mystery swords that doesn’t quite conform to the rules modern day collectors like to apply to everything. Nominally it looks like a 1796 Pattern Light Cavalry officers’ sabre with a pipe-back blade.
A pipe-back blade is a style of blade that came into fashion in the very last years of the 18th Century. It is not known if the design originated in France or Britain, but it is likely that it is a modification of the T-cross section popular on the Kijiji swords of the Ottoman Empire. By re-enforcing the blade with a bar of steel, or ‘pipe’ along the spine, it allows for a thinner, sharper blade.
While we see early examples of pipe-back swords, particularly among the officers of the light cavalry (although there are examples of heavy cavalry and infantry officer swords with them as well) it isn’t really until the 1810s that they came into any form of prominence. With the design becoming standard in later pattern swords.
Like many swords of the time, this one is un-marked, so it is impossible to determine its exact age. However small features like the lack of a yelman on the tip and the keyhole scabbard throat would roughly place it around 1810 – 1818.
Most of the pipe-back sabres can be confidently attributed to the officers’ branch of service by the type of hilt, length of blade or what scabbard they have. This sabre, however, has a steel stirrup hilt, which could be rifles or light cavalry, however its’ blade at 805 mm is long for a rifles officer while short for a cavalry officer. The leather scabbard is unsuited for mounted use, but regulation for a cavalry officers’ dress sword and typical for a rifles officer. Of course, there were other mounted services that were issued the 1796 Pattern light cavalry sabre, such as the mounted artillery and the soldiers of the baggage train. So it could have belonged to an officer of either service as well, and in a way such a sword would made sense for a mounted artillery officer, who would normally expect to do most of his actual fighting on foot from a set position and need to defend himself while his guns were deployed. In contrast to the light dragoons, who would fight mostly from horseback.
Ultimately, we are unlikely to ever know, but it is a quality sword showing the fine attention to detail the craftsmen of the era paid to their art to make a what is a fairly simple hilt stand out.
Overall Length: 925 mm
Blade Length: 805 mm
Grip Length: 110 mm
Inside Grip Length: 95 mm
Sword Weight: 630 grams
Total Weight: 1,010 grams
Point of Balance: 65 mm
Curve: 40 mm
