A Fine English Civil War / Restoration Period Officers’ Walloon Sword

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Price: £1,850

Ref: 24070489

Item Description

A fine English Officers’ Walloon Sword dating to the third to fourth quarters of the 17th century. The guard plates are finely pierced and engraved with floral sprays in the English manner.

English Walloons were in use throughout the English Civil War period, the Restoration period, and in the battles fought during the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II was deposed. Most usually these are cavalry swords mounted with single edged blades. This example has a double edged blade.

The hilt is made up of slender flattened fluted bars built upon a sturdy quillon block. The cross bar is extended into a rear quillon which terminates in a swollen downwardly facing wristguard.

To the front, the quillon is extended into a knuckle bow, the flat grooved terminal of which is tucked into an aperture located at the front lower part of the pommel. Robust oval ring guards are mounted on each side of the cross bar, each with decorative bisected pairs of square shapes in the outer middle. Each ring is filled with a slightly downwardly convex plate, intricately engraved and pierced with floral sprays within cusped borders.

The knucklebow has two subsidiary bars emanating from near the base which join with the edges of the ring guards to strengthen the hilt structure. The hilt floor has a raised platform on the inside which supports the grip. The slightly flattened oval pommel has a fluted top with an integral raised button and a flared neck beneath and is decorated in the same manner as the rest of the hilt.

The attractive slightly baluster shaped wooden grip is diagonally fluted and bound with  twisted steel wire and has steel woven Turks Heads top and bottom. The fine quality blade is of stiff slender flattened diamond section. It has a central fuller on each side which extends 6 inches (15 cm) from the hilt inscribed in capital letters with “ITTVTE” on one side and “FORTVNA” on the other enhanced with stamped designs of dots and crosses.

The overall length of the sword is 38.25 inches (97 cm) and the blade is 32 inches (81.5 cm) long. Overall the sword is in nice patinated original condition.

For further information on English Walloon swords, and to see similar examples, see Stuart C Mowbray, “British Military Swords – Volume One: 1600 to 1660”, Mowbray Publishing, 2013, pages 246 to 254. See also for further discussion, Cyril Mazansky, British Basket Hilted Swords, Boydell Press 2005, Chapter 11, pages 281 to 284. The swords are described as “Hilts based on pierced side rings”.