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This is the off-duty sabre of the Prussian cavalry officers, carried on parade occasions and quite possibly in the field in the early days of WW1. The official fighting sword was the model 1852 with a half-basket guard, with an EPNS finish. The magnificent bronze hilt would originally have had a gilt finish. Other German cavalry units also carried this sword, but it was essentially a Prussian design with the pipe-backed blade taken from the 1871 pattern lancers other ranks sword. This particular sword has a very strong pipe-backed blade, with no engraving whatsoever and an excellent EPNS finish. The scabbard might well have been nickel silver finish originally, but this is now toned down to a patinated plain iron finish. The wiring on the grip has been restored; to be totally honest, the muck between the fishskin grip and the backstrap is epoxy resin of some sort, which has been used to hold in broken elements of the wiring. In spite of the restoration (reflected in the price), this is still a fine looking sword, increasingly uncommon to find with a good stout pipe-back fighting blade. |