Thomas Del Mar Ltd
Lot 171
A FINE SILVER-HILTED SMALL-SWORD RETAILED BY MATTHEW FEESEY, PALL MALL, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS FOR 1744-45, MAKER'S MARK TB, POSSIBLY FOR THOMAS BAMFORD with colichemarde blade engraved with strapwork panels at the forte, silver hilt cast and chased with rococo ornament in low relief, comprising double shell-guard decorated with elaborate scrolls and foliage partly enclosing a lion mask on each side of the blade, the inner face decorated with grotesque masks and scrolls of shell ornament carrying garlands, the quillon-block, knuckle-guard and pommel each decorated with further designs of scrolls, masks and shell ornament, globular quillon chiselled with foliage, a pair of slender arms each chiselled with foliage at the tips, and original silver grip of plaited silver wire bound with a chased silver collar top and bottom, in its original wooden scabbard covered with tooled leather (now broken), with silver locket and chape, the former signed by the retailer (suspension button missing), and with an early silver bullion sword knot 81.2cm; 32in blade Matthew Feesey is recorded as a sword cutler in Pall Mall circa 1703-69. The silver-mounted 'State Sword' of General George Washington preserved at Mount Vernon, Virginia is signed by him. An almost identical sword with London hallmarks for 1746-7 (and an unclear maker's mark) is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv.nr.1991.115. See L.Southwick 2001, pp.106-107 and D.J.LaRocca 1998, p.33. Another sword from this group belonging to Admiral George, the Sixth Earl of Northesk and hallmarked for 1747-48 was sold Christie's, 19th October 1977, lot 42.
