Smallsword

Dateabout 1770

Mediumetched steel, cast brass with traces of gilding and silvering, painted enamel, wood and velvet

Dimensions87 × 73.7 cm (34 1/4 × 29 in.), 11 oz (weight)

ClassificationsArms and Armor

MarkingsBoth sides of blade with an etched cartouche reading: "Kiessman/Marchand/Fourbisseur/Rue des/eperoniers/a/Bruxelles." [Kiessman, merchant-furbisher, Street of the Lorimers, Brussels]

Credit LineThe John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection

Terms

Object number2014.341

DescriptionNarrow steel flat hexagonal section blade, tapering acutely to point. Forte acid-etched with blackened rococo cartouches & strapwork on a hatched, blackened ground. Below the shoulder, both faces have an elongated cartouche rounded at the ends, framed by intertwined strapwork motifs above and below, on similar grounds. Within the cartouches is furbisher's etched inscription.

Cast brass hilt carved & punched in rococo manner, once gilded & still partly silvered. Norman's type 109, with pommel type 88. The hilt is insulated from the blade via a thin red velvet washer, and an oval, tapered plate above. Short forward quillon, of more-or-less oval section, opposed by closed knuckle guard, which extends straight upward, swelling at mid-height, and curving in to the pommel, where it ends in a volute with short stud that engages a hole in the pommel. Hilt once with obverse open side ring now lost. The quillon block and pommel extend over the ends of the grip in shallow caps, scrolled along the edges, and engraved into volutes.

Egg-shaped bronze pommel, flattened slightly in the plane of the blade, with a molded neck integral with the basal cap. There is an integral, necked button at the top, expanding outward, and the peened tang end is visible above.

Enameled wooden grip swells at mid-length. It is white with painted decoration of spaced floral motifs overall. On the obverse and reverse faces, within a delicate rococo vine border are country scenes & figures of gentlemen in period clothing.

The hilt is carved and punched with rocaille, swirls and flowers, partly fire-silvered.
Label TextBy the eighteenth century, the smallsword (or "court sword") had become an essential part of the well-dressed gentleman's attire. While an extremely decorative form of male jewelry, the smallsword was nonetheless a lethal thrusting weapon in the hands of a swordsman skilled in its use.ProvenancePurchased by Museum on May 22, 1935 from the Goelet/Parsons sale at American Art Association/ Anderson Galleries (NYC), part of lot 323 Collection transfer from Higgins Armory, January 2014.

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