[Myles Hildebrand]

I picked up these swords for cheap at a flea market. I was wondering if anyone could say what type they are supposed to me. (I assume they are replicas) What I would like to know is approx area and period ie: the red ones with the more curve look Indian cavalry to me - but I don't know. The other seems generic European cavalry. But I'm sure my betters will have a better idea.

All say Made In India on the blade near the hilt. The blades have a few designs along the blade. The red ones have strange (to me) numbers or symbols on the opposite side from the Made in India- one says "541 361 651" and the other "421 321 532" but backwards. They could be Indian numbers but I am unsure.

The black scabbard ones have more flowers on the blade and one has 9 'backwards numbers' by the hilt but one has "No: 4875" by the hilt, opposite the "made in India" again.

The pictures don't do them justice but I really would like to know what STYLE they are supposed to be: Indian? Persian? Cossak? Polish cavalry?

I've seen similar swords on eBay advertised as all of the above, at stupidly high prices. Mine are for display only but.... what do I call them?

[T.F. McCraken]

Low end.
If you paid more than $10.00 each, you paid to much.

Stainless blades. Mass-marketed about 30 years ago.

One of my first swords, too.


Murph

[Timo Nieminen]

The beast-head pommel one is Persian in style. These were also fairly common in north India. This is a shamshir. A proper shamshir blade tapers towards the tip, usually over the final 1/2 or so of the blade. Some of these cheap replicas don't have this kind of taper (and often aren't as curved as the originals). Hilts like this were also found on other types of blades (e.g., straight blades) in India.

The disk pommel one is Indian. A talwar or tulwar. Often without the knuckle-bow (but the knuckle-bow is common, too). This is the classic Indian curved sword. These can have a variety of types of blades, shamshir blades, broad blades, recycled European sabre blades. Often the last 1/4 or so of the back edge is sharpened.

My guess for the European-style sabres is that they're intended to be the British 1853 cavalry sword, or one of the earlier British swords with the 3-bar hilt.

[Allan Senefelder]

All four are Indian made wall hanger/tourist pieces. I have the tulwar style one sitting in my living room right now and have seen numerous examples of the others in junk shops over the years. I remember seeing these in gimmicky catalogs when was a kid in the 70's, the sort that would sell stuff like mini pool tables and such.

[Myles Hildebrand]

Thanks everyone. That's exactly the info I was looking for.