Sword [.1] with curved blade, wooden handle and narrow guard, the blade incised with sun, moon and stars and floral patterns. With leather sheath [.2] with metal fittings. [El.B 24/08/2007]

Collection type: Object
Description: Sword [.1] with curved blade, wooden handle and narrow guard, the blade incised with sun, moon and stars and floral patterns. With leather sheath [.2] with metal fittings. [El.B 24/08/2007]
Geographical reference: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; England
Cultural groups: English
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Miss Hatchett Jackson
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1845
Date collected: By 1845
Acquisition information: Donated: 1927
Materials and processes: Material Steel Metal, Material Wood Plant, Material Animal Leather Skin, Process Forged (Metal), Process Bound, Process Incised, Process Carved
Dimensions: Length: max 800 mm, Length: max 680 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1927.45.6.1 Accession number: 1927.45.6.2
Research and responses: OED online Sabre: A cavalry sword having a curved blade specially adapted for cutting. [AP 22/09/2006]
The curved European cavalry sabre, single-edged on the convex side, was ultimately derived from Asiatic sword forms. The etymology of the term sabre itself indicates something of this stylistic ancestry of diffusion; it is derived from the Hungarian szablya, meaning ‘to cut’. The Hungarians and Russians acquired this sword form during the 9th century AD from the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppes, who were participating in largely the same sword culture as the peoples of southern and central Asia (Nickel, 2002: 120). This sword form was brought into Europe by the Eurasian Avars – a nomadic Eurasian peoples originating in the present-day Ukraine, who were forced into Eastern Europe by a Persian expansion in the mid-6th century AD. The sabre’s suitability for mounted use – like the other Asiatic curved swords – emerges from the benefit of an elongated Centre of Percussion in a Drawing Cut – i.e. downwards and backwards, effectively increasing the length of blade encountered by the victim’s body (Burton, 1884: 130-1). The Eastern European acquisition of this technology, and its widespread dissemination into Western Europe, reflects the superior results which such a form produces. It is, however, of more limited use when thrusting, and much debate went on among swordsmiths and cavalry troops throughout the 17th and 18th centuries over whether it was better to carry a thrusting or cutting sword in the cavalry charge. Research Conducted for DCF Cutting Edge 2006/2007 [AM].
The donor - Miss Hatchet Jackson - is probably related to William Hatchett Jackson, who read Natural History at New College (1870-73), and later taught on the Natural Science degree (at Keble College), becoming the Radcliffe's Librarian in 1900. [Dan Hicks 22/04/2013]

Search terms: Weapon, Sword, Sheath