New Friends and Old Swords
Posted: 19/07/17 (12:43pm)As usual, life is rushing by. I've been busy forging new friendships and discussing old swords on the different Facebook groups that I have joined. I wish I had done it sooner. There is a wealth of knowledge out there held by great people who are happy to share. I hope my own contributions to the various discussions and requests for identifications and information have been useful and helpful too.
I was really heartened and grateful to the members who looked over my website, gave their approval and wished me luck. Thanks all! :-)
Ok, so I haven't just been surfing the chat rooms and skiving off. I've been working too.
It gives me a lot of pleasure when items from the website are bought by collectors in the countries from which they originally came. There is a feeling of home-coming when a rare sword is repatriated. It just feels right. In the past I have also had the pleasure of reuniting families with ancestors' swords. Most recently, I was able to return the sword of William Home-Robertson to Paxton House where it is now on display to the public below his life-size portrait in which he is wearing the sword.
In contrast, I feel great sadness when something historically significant is lost to any nation.
I recently acquired the sword of Commander Victor Lyndsey Arbuthnot Campbell RN, DSO and Bar, OBE, who was the First Officer on Scott's ill-fated 1910 Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic. Victor Campbell led the Eastern party, and despite a year of hardship, lead his party of six men back to safety. Scott and all his party died, overshadowing Campbell's achievement. Scott's death made Campbell Britain's foremost Arctic explorer. He was also a naval hero, awarded two DSO's during WW1.
I offered the sword at cost to several museums including one run by the Royal Navy and to the Antarctic Exploration Museum and it was of no interest to any of them. I have now sold the sword for a considerable sum and it has left the country and gone into a private collection where I know it will be cherished and cared for, but how sad that no-one in the UK will ever get to see it.
Last week I spent a really enjoyable day at the BBC Antiques Roadshow which was filmed at Floors Castle. It was fun seeing how the program is made (and Fiona Bruce looks just as good in real life!). I took along a couple of swords to see what the experts would say. It was heartening to hear them confirm my own opinions and identification of them.
One was an extremely rare British River Police hanger, dating between 1798 and 1840 which I have just added to the site.
The other, a French hunting sword with a colichemarde blade, dating from around 1680 - 1730.
The colichemarde blade was popular in France from the mid 1600's until early 1700's.
The blade of this hunting hanger is engraved with the motto "Champion Qui Surmonte" meaning "The one who overcomes everything," and the initials (presumably of the owner), JCS. Despite missing its shell guard it is a great little sword, the brass D-guard and pommel cap are engraved with typical hunting scenes of hounds after stags and foxes (although one of the beasts being hunted is mythical) and the quillon is a beautifully detailed "dogs" head.
This lovely little sword will be added to the website soon.
