Help ID this Sword -- myArmoury.com

Jenny C · Posted: Thu 01 May, 2014 12:36 am Post subject: Help ID this Sword

Recently Discovered a bunch of swords and daggers up in my Attic, very exciting, I have managed to ID most of them but this one seems to be avoiding me, it seems to a French infantry sword 1800 replica but I am not sure, its very beautiful though. If any one can help ID this sword would be very happy, thank you for your time

Luka Borscak · Posted: Thu 01 May, 2014 2:34 am Post subject:

It's a replica (not a very good one) of a sword attributed to Charlemagne.

Timo Nieminen · Posted: Thu 01 May, 2014 2:36 am Post subject:

It's a replica of the Sword of Charlemagne.

http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_charlemagne.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyeuse

Many makers have done replicas of this: Del Tin, Marto, Denix, lots of cheap Toledo makers, Deepeeka, and probably more. These vary from good quality functional swords (Del Tin), lower quality functional swords (Deepeeka), good quality wallhangers (Marto), through to cheap and nasty wallhangers. I don't recognise yours by maker, but it isn't Del Tin or Deepeeka. The scabbard is a copy of the original scabbard (well, the scabbard that's with the original sword); not a really accurate copy, but recognisable.

Neil Melville · Posted: Thu 01 May, 2014 4:41 am Post subject:

Whether the original is or is not the actual sword of Charlemagne is disputed. Anyway it currently resides in its own case, quite splendid, in the Louvre in Paris. Many famous old swords, like the mythical 'Excalibur' or 'El Cid's' suffer re-incarnation as modern replicas, mostly awful.
Neil