May 27, 2020 Founders & Patriots
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/27/2020
This is a fine example of a British mounted officer's saber by William Kinman, one of the foremost London sword cutlers of the second half of the 18th century. The blade is slightly curved, with a narrow and wide fuller, the latter of which extends nearly to the spearpoint tip, and a long false-edge. It has a half basket hilt with D-shaped knucklebow, with openwork crossguard and two, scrolled side-branches with gadrooning on the obverse face and one on the recto. The grip is of ebony cut with spiraled channels, fixed by a silver ferrule in front and with a silver backstrap ending in a flat, capped pommel with turned capstan for blade tang. The ferrule, backstrap and pommel are edged with a single, deeply incised line. On the outer face of the crossguard, directly opposite the obverse face on the blade at forte, bears London hallmarks for 1787, while at the recto is the "WK" touchmark of William Kinman. This saber was formerly in the collection of Dr. John K. Latimer and is illustrated on page 68 of Hartzler's "Silver Mounted Swords, The Lattimer Family Collection." CONDITION: The blade is a uniform medium grey caste, with a few light dings and dents along its length, with scattered, light pitting within three inches of the tip, which is also blunted or chipped (approximately 1/4 inch missing from its probable original length). The ebony grip is chipped on both sides at the pommel and also at ferrule on obverse side, while the twisted silver wire that was originally in the channels of the grip is now missing. The junction of the outer, obverse side-branch with the crossguard shows evidence of reattaching.
Paperwork
Copy of previous auction description