A beginners guide to identifying the original owner of a 19th Century British officers sword
As the identification of original owners seems to be something many beginning collectors struggle to get to grips with, I felt that a clear set of guiding points may be helpful on this matter. A lot of this struggle stems from not knowing which resources to use and where to find those resources, which is something I will provide here.
Before continuing, if you are a new collector I must first make it clear to you that the majority of swords are not traceable to an original owner — the ones that are traceable are out there and they are not impossible to find by any means, but the examples that are traceable are in the minority, and even when they appear traceable there are always rare cases where the information simply does not help you pick the officer out.
I would say that it is vital that you first identify the pattern of officers sword that you have in hand before following this guide, and also that you decide on a rough date of manufacture, to within a decade or so. The reasons for this will become clear later.
First, was your sword made by Wilkinson, and if so does it have a serial number on the spine of the ricasso? If it does, this serial number can be checked against the Wilkinson sales ledgers for a fee and the name of the original purchaser may be identified therein. The name is not always logged in the book — if it isn’t there, you are out of luck via this avenue. Please do note that non-Wilkinson serial numbers will not help you here, it absolutely must be a Wilkinson for this method to work.
Second, does the sword have any etched, engraved or stamped initials on the blade? If so, these can be used to identify the owner or at the very least narrow down the options. Start by identifying what the letters are. This can be harder than it sounds as Victorian script can be difficult to decipher, especially when etchings are rubbed, dirty, or otherwise faded. Once you have positively confirmed what the letters read as, you need to use the sword manufacture date range that you should have pre-identified as mentioned at the beginning of this article. For example, if you have initials reading ‘CAV’, and the sword you have is an 1822/45p with a folding guard, you know that the sword is within the approximate range of 1845 to 1860. Using this information, access Hart’s Army Lists, the Army Lists, the Indian Army Lists, the Militia Officer Lists or the Honourable East India Company records (check the Resources at the bottom of the article) and start looking through the index of volumes 1845 to 1860 under ‘V’ searching for a name that matches the initials you have identified. Personally I recommend starting your search in Hart’s, and moving on to the other sources from there. If you discover more than one match, you can further narrow things down by checking what branch of the army these options served in — you almost certainly have an infantry officers sword in this example, and if one of the options was a cavalry officer he can be discounted. This method if successful will result in either a small shortlist of possible officers or a positive match. In some cases you will not find the initials you are looking for, if this happens you can expand your search slightly but it is possible that the officer is not recorded in Hart’s and you will need to move on to the other sources. In some of these cases reordering the initials may be of assistance, if for example the central initial appears etched more prominently. (NOTE: Do not mistake the monarch’s cypher on the blade for an owners initials, example of a cypher shown below along with an example of etched owners initials).
Third, is there a family crest on the blade, such as the examples shown below?
If there is, this can potentially be used to narrow down the last name of the swords owner, and in conjunction with the approximate date of the sword and the pattern this could help you positively identify the owner. First, you will need to access volume 1 and 2 of Fairbairn’s book of crests of the families of Great Britain and Ireland. These can either be purchased or perused digitally for free via Google Books (links in the Resources below). Once you have found copies of these, use volume 2 to compare the crest on your sword to the crests in the book. If you find a match, note the page number and plate number, then find this referenced in volume 1. This will give you a family name or names associated with the crest — write this down and use Hart’s Army List as I detailed above for initials, except in this case you only have a last name or names to go by. This will usually produce a longer list of potential officers, but this can sometimes be narrowed down further. For a detailed and real life example of narrowing these results down, please see my article On a sword of probable Crimean War provenance, and the implications it carries for the use of piquet weight swords in warfare, linked in the Resources. Therein I narrow down the potential results for the crest on a sword in my personal collection.
Fourth, finally, and most obviously, is the full name of the officer etched on the blade? If it is, you’ve identified the officer. Sarcasm aside, now that you have the full name you can use the same methods given in the other entries to peruse Hart’s Army List during the relevant time period and find the officer in question.
An example from my own collection is pictured here, for reference.
A final note on research is that if you have found a last name and either it isn’t showing up where you would expect it in Hart’s or you have found it in Hart’s and would like to do further research, one place to check is the London Gazette, which is incredibly useful. I have added a link to that in the resources.
Thanks:
I would like to give thanks to Matthew Forde for again assisting me with my article and providing an image from his own collection to flesh out the visual examples used. His website can be found here: