A few interesting swords on the Macpherson Museum website !

A Panoply of Swords

Old Cluny's Sword

Mac

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Great little display--thanks, Mac. the sword listed as Half Basket Hilt #1 looks like the ultra rare "Celtic Hilt" variation of the British 1796 Pattern heavy cavalry officer's service sword. Very cool!

Jonathan

Ooohhhhhhh, soon as I quit drooling over those pieces I may come back to my senses, LOL.
Thanks for posting that, Mac!

-Greg

I have attached images of all the information I have. The design seems to be most closely associated with the British cutler Prosser. There is a 1994 article in "Classic Arms and Militaria" by Richard Dellar on the topic of the Celtic Hilt, but I do not have access to that artcle. The text I have attached is from Swords of the British Army (Revised edition) by Brian Robson (I will list the as pages 1-3 for ease of reading here, the actual pages numbers are p.84-86). The term "Celtic Hilt" was coined by Richard Dellar and is not a period term for the hilt. I am afraid that the photos will appear out of reading order, so please pay attention to the captions below the attachments.

Richard has a running list of known examples of this "pattern", and the Macpherson sword will make the total 18 (so thanks, Mac!). Richard agreed that the scabbard seems out of place for the sword, but that it might have been an infantry adaptation and carried by a Scottish infantry officer, as they sometimes preferred unorthodox swords.

Jonathan

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Robson, page 1

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Celtic hilt close-up (by Prosser), from Bezdek's "Swords and Swordmakers of England and Scotland"

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Robson, page 2 [ Download ]

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Robson, page 3 [ Download ]

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Celtic hilt overall shot (by Prosser), from Bezdek's "Swords and Swordmakers of England and Scotland" [ Download ]

Macphersons broke fourteen swords on the metal skullcaps that the English Dragoons were wearing

Interesting comment that confirms that Dragoons were wearing "secrets" in their tricorns during the period.
A talk at the Wallace a few years ago on the mid 18th C army mentioned the price of dragoon headgear during this period (detailed in a certain regiment's records) suggested this was being done.