• Title
  Sword : said to have belonged to Matthew Flinders
• Creator
  William Gibbons
• Call number
  SAFE/LR 7
  
• Level of description
  series
• Date
  
  1783 - 1800
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Objects
• Reference code
  402342
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  Objects - 1 sword with a gilt brass stirrup hilt. Grip is plain ivory, and shaped to the hand. Scabbard is black leather with two brass loose-ring lockets & rings and chape. A blind embossed geometric saltires and deer slot design has been stamped on the scabbard between the top and middle lockets. Blade is slightly curved and single-edged and flat backed. Two grooves or fullers extend from hilt to the tip of the blade. Some damaged etching - with evidence of possible gilding - and blueing is visible at top of groove near the hilt. - Hilt: 15.4 cm; blade 56.2 cm; scabbard 58.5 cm
  
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Created before 1955
• General note
  
  It is unclear if this is a navy sword: if it was one would expect to see an anchor somewhere engraved, either on its langets or blade. It is probably not a dress sword: Philip J. Lankester, Senior Curator, Royal Armouries, London.
  
  It has not proved possible to accurately date the sword. The geometric blind embossed design on the scabbard was considered old fashioned by 1800 (see P.G.W. Annis, Naval Swords, Arms and Armour Press, 1970 p. 44), but the design of the stirrup hilt implies a ca. 1800, or later, date.
  
  William Gibbons was a Portsmouth sword cutler who was working at the end of the eighteenth century : see W.E. May & P.G.W. Annis, Swords for Sea Service, London, 1970 vol. 2 p. 326
  Digital order no:Album ID : 846715
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  On the top locket is engraved "Gibbens Portsmouth"
• Topic
  cutlasses
  swords
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Possessed : an exhibition of treasures - State Library of New South Wales (4 March - 29 June, 1997)
  Matthew Flinders : The Ultimate Voyage - State Library of New South Wales
  Landmarks: People and Places across Australia - National Museum of Australia (May, 2011 - May, 2014)
  Artefact or Fiction: Curriculum highlights, 22 October 2018 to 19 April 2019 - State Library of New South Wales (October, 2018 - April, 2019)
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE1123348

View Media Files

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Show more