Sabre de cavalier à garde en panier, Suisse... - Lot 235 - Pierre Bergé & Associés

Sabre de cavalier à garde en panier, Suisse vers 1650. A Swiss basket-hilted horseman's sabre, circa 1650. With curved slender blade double-edged towards the point, cut with two long fullers below the back-edge, the latter recessed very slightly over the greater part of its length, and the inner face struck with a crescent moon mark next to six small decorative marks arranged in two rows, iron hilt of flattened broad bars, comprising a pair of quillons with engraved fluted "fishtail" terminals scrolled in opposing directions, a trefoil guard projecting from the outside of the hilt, the latter joined at its apex by the lower rear bar of the basket-guard, the forward root of the guard joined to the root of the forward quillon, the basket-guard constructed of two forward-swept bars joined by an S-shaped diagonal and each decorated with punched engraved raised panels of stylised leaf ornament, the panels divided by flattened mouldings, one punched with the letters "CS", probably the owner's initials, and the inner side of the basket-guard formed of a single plain S-shaped bar running diagonally from the top to a small inner loop-guard, with thumbring, iron pommel formed as a dog's head chiselled naïvely in the round, and original moulded grip bound in leather over cord. L. overall: 111.3 cm - L. blade: 94.9 cm - W.: 18 cm.