Existing comment:
1753 Silver-Hilted Smallsword
Made by John Carman II, London, 1753
This fine sword dates to 1753, the same year in which the 21 year-old George Washington received his first military appointment, as a major in the Virginia Militia. He is believed to have carried it during the French and Indian War engagements at Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity in 1754, and the 1755 ambush of General Edward Braddock's army.
Stylistically, the blade and hilt present a curious combination of an out-of-date blade design with highly fashionable lobed or "gadrooned" decoration on the silver hilt. The wooden grip would originally have been wrapped in spiraling bands of silver tape and twisted silver wire, echoing the gadrooning.
The 1753 smallsword descended in the family of Washington's nephew, Major George Lewis (1757-1821), and was eventually purchased by the Vice Regent for Alabama in 1884, as a gift to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. |