Can anybody help me identify this sword please?
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Sorry for the late reply, I've had a really busy week. Thanks for all the replies, I believe from the posts on here and on other forums this probably is a Chinese butterfly sword. I think my step dad still wants to take it to be looked however. I'll update of I find anything else out for those interested.
Thanks again for all of the useful information. I feel like I've learnt a fair bit reading through.
Thanks again for all of the useful information. I feel like I've learnt a fair bit reading through.
Everything from the guard to the butt is of typical "American" styling.
The biggest weakness the Confederacy had was manufacturing. It lacked the factories, etc.....which was one of the many reasons leading to The Unpleasantness. That lack of a manufacturing base made it necessary to turn out certain items, including blades (which were not a primarily issued item), by private firms, foreign concerns, and very often local craftsmen. Often, design elements were repeated as known with individual or personal changes occurring.
Other than a slight possibility with the blade (the taper especially doesn't convince me) nothing else would lead me to believe this had Asian provenance by design alone. It is pretty typical of the era in question. Especially the carving.
Edit* (my tablet died, sorry) This may go as early as Mexican/American War in design.
The American author, Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers), wrote a book about the WWII fighting man called Citizen Soldiers. Nowhere was that term more aptly fitting except perhaps for the American Civil War. Obsolete open formation tactics met rifled barrel. The idea, albeit a misplaced one, that a fighting man needed a fighting blade followed many an untested soldier to battle with the kit he supplied himself with often enough. Especially in the South. And big fighting blades were still in some older memories, as well. There are photographs of romantic idea filled men proudly displaying their tools of war, often handmedowns, including blades similar to this, in ACW collections.
I can't in any way claim this to be authentic, but it follows the design, at least.
The biggest weakness the Confederacy had was manufacturing. It lacked the factories, etc.....which was one of the many reasons leading to The Unpleasantness. That lack of a manufacturing base made it necessary to turn out certain items, including blades (which were not a primarily issued item), by private firms, foreign concerns, and very often local craftsmen. Often, design elements were repeated as known with individual or personal changes occurring.
Other than a slight possibility with the blade (the taper especially doesn't convince me) nothing else would lead me to believe this had Asian provenance by design alone. It is pretty typical of the era in question. Especially the carving.
Edit* (my tablet died, sorry) This may go as early as Mexican/American War in design.
The American author, Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers), wrote a book about the WWII fighting man called Citizen Soldiers. Nowhere was that term more aptly fitting except perhaps for the American Civil War. Obsolete open formation tactics met rifled barrel. The idea, albeit a misplaced one, that a fighting man needed a fighting blade followed many an untested soldier to battle with the kit he supplied himself with often enough. Especially in the South. And big fighting blades were still in some older memories, as well. There are photographs of romantic idea filled men proudly displaying their tools of war, often handmedowns, including blades similar to this, in ACW collections.
I can't in any way claim this to be authentic, but it follows the design, at least.
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