Design for a Small-Sword Hilt
Not on view
The Department of Arms and Armor possesses a small but significant collection of original designs on paper for the decoration of armor, edged weapons, and firearms. Exceptionally rare today, the drawings of serve to document the creative process for the embellishment of high-quality arms. Among our designs are five for French eighteenth-century small-sword hilts dating between 1725 and 1780 (1985.332.1-4; 2011.102). The present example complements these but employs different ornament and is of slightly later date. The strict symmetry of the design, narrow oval shape of the pommel, and diminutive arms of the hilt characterize neoclassical small-swords dating from the last quarter of the century. Among surviving drawings, it is an exceptionally rare example decorated with soldiers, reflecting the popularity of this theme in the 1780s. The department’s outstanding collection of small-swords – the quintessential gentleman’s sidearm – includes several French examples of the type, all dating to 1780-90 (26.145. 290, .291, .292., and .323). While these swords invariably show soldiers and cavalrymen, singly or in groups, abstracted against a plain ground, this design is unique in showing them at rest, in camp or within a landscape, in picturesque vignettes. Drawing of this type were presumably created by, or for, the sword cutler (fourbisseur) to show a range of hilt designs to potential customers.
