December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
Overall Length: 41 ¼ in. Blade: 35 5/8 in. L x 1 5/16 in. W
In late 1780, Loyalist Benjamin Thompson, then Under-Secretary of State to Lord North, received permission to procure and import 500 light dragoon sabers from Solingen, Germany to equip the newly-authorized Kings American Dragoons, of which he was to be the future commandant. Thompson argued that the German weapons were both less-expensive and better-made than those that were made by English cutlers for British light dragoon regiments and could also be procured in less time than in England. The Treasury and Ordnance Board both agreed, the former on basis of cost and timeliness and the latter on the stipulation that the swords must pass the same government proofing tests that the Tower employed on such arms that were English-made. The swords all passed with flying colors and it was determined in 1781, with increasing demands from America for horse equipage and arms to equip mounted Loyalist corps in the South, to procure an additional 2000 additional sabers from Solingen. The 2000 sabers were shipped to America in fall 1781 and while many were issued out and used in the subsequent year’s small actions fought on the outskirts of Charleston SC, Savannah GA, and New York City, still more remained in the Ordnance storehouses until those said cities were evacuated by the British, the arms eventually returning to England. Two examples of this pattern are known bearing blades etched with the appellation, “KING’S DRAGOONS”, which are believed to be those issued to Thompson’s regiment; the balance of known examples still in the Royal Armouries at Leeds are of the same pattern, but with unmarked blades, with the exception of Tower inspection/proof marks, which are the same on all: crown/1 (located on the obverse face or flat of the blade, near the hilt. All of the arms have brass, stirrup-hilts with shagreen-wrapped, channeled, wooden grips—not surprisingly very much like those used by Prussian hussar regiments, but the blades themselves, although of superior German steel, are in the typical form favored by British light horse: slightly curved (nearly straight), long blades with clipped points. Deaccessioned from the Tower of London, c. 1960. JLK