Posted: 8/15/2011 12:18:06 AM EDT
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My grandfather died several months back, and my dad and my uncles were cleaning out his house. In the attic, they found a sword. None of us have any idea what it is or where it came from. I know very little about edged weapons, so I'm hoping someone here has a better idea about what it could be.
Some potentially helpful information: We have no idea if it belonged to my grandparents or the people who owned the house before them. It is a single-edged blade. It is in pretty rough shape, but still has a workable edge. It's not exactly sharp anymore, but it almost definitely was at some point. My grandfather was in the Navy in WWII in the South Pacific. (He wasn't an officer or an NCO, to the best of my knowledge, though.) My grandmother was Swiss. She lived in the UK, Switzerland, Borneo, and the United States. My grandfather's father was in the British Army. The hilt appears to be either brass or bronze. It appears as though there was, at one point, some tassel or lanyard attached to the hilt near the pommel. Pictures: 
 (This is next to a standard architect's scale.)
Hilt: 
Hilt pictures, next to architect's scale: 
Blade: 
Any ideas? Thanks, LDL |
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Quoted:
Talwar - Indian subcontinent/south central asia would be my guess as to its origins. This http://arms2armor.com/Swords/tulwar1.htm |
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Quoted:
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Talwar - Indian subcontinent/south central asia would be my guess as to its origins. This http://arms2armor.com/Swords/tulwar1.htm Looks like we have a winner. Betting it came from OP's great, great grandfather since he was in the British Army. |
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Post the pictures at The Company of Military Historians' Website. They have experts in every single aspect of the military material culture.
BTW, I am a High Private in that organization. That means I only have to do KP on Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur and Fri. 
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I don't think it is a Tulwar. Tulwars have a distinctive flattened pommel which this does not have. Like someone said earlier head over to the COMH forum and ask there there are guys in the Company that have forgotten more about swords that I will ever even learn.
It could have come from your great grandfathers military service with the British. Lots of mounted units in Europe adopted kilij type sabers such as the Marmalukes used Kilij |
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Could also be a mameluke, which was a Turkish sword.
<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/mameluke.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/263/mameluke.jpg</a> Mameluke's became popular in the French army after Napoleon invaded Egypt. From there they spread all over Europe.
That was my first guess when I saw it - Turkish or Ottoman. |
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Indian Tulwar, likely late 19th to mid-20th century. I suppose it could be as early as mid-19th century. Value is likely between $100 and $275. EDIT: The antique arms and armour market is relatively flooded with original and 20th century tourist-market Indo-Persian wares. They, quite frankly, get in the way when shopping for European arms and armour. |
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It does seem to be a tulwar.
The Middle-East, India & Africa subforum at Swordforum.com might be able to shed some more light on the subject. |