LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1790

細節

AN ENGLISH SILVER-HILTED SABRE
London silver hallmarks for 1790
With etched strongly-curved single-edged blade (rust-stained) etched at the base on one face with the signature 'Thomas Gill Birmingham' and the inscription 'Warranted Never to Fail', on the other, the pseudo-Oriental mameluke hilt entirely of cast and chased silver with short quillons (bent) with scallop-shaped tips, the grip formed as the head and spirally-gadrooned and scaled neck of a dragon-like monster, its mouth and the forward quillon linked by a silver chain, in leather-covered wooden scabbard (slight damage) with silver mounts, comprising deep locket and chape and narrower intermediate locket, the first and last with suspension rings, and all chased with rococo scrollwork in the Turkish manner, silversmith's mark of Francis Thurkle II
28¾in. (73cm.) blade

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

拍品專文

Francis Thurkle II (1754-1800), a member of the London Cutlers' Company, entered this mark at Goldsmiths' Hall in 1783. The blade is by Thomas Gill (c.1744-1801) of Birmingham and London, whose boast about his blades inscribed as this one was inspired by their overwhelming success in trials held by the East India Company in 1786. The sword provides an illustration of the fashion for objects decorated in the Turkish style that developed in England in the late 18th century

See Leslie Southwick, London Silver-hilted Swords, pp. 116-18, 213, 240-41