Cold steel from the museum
Russian official sword 1855. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
Swords ringing, like the sound of a glass,
Since childhood, I have been fond of hearing.
The sword has shown many
The sword has shown many
What is dust and fluff.
Song from the movie
“Property of the Republic” (1971)
to poems by Yu. Entin
Since childhood, I have been fond of hearing.
The sword has shown many
The sword has shown many
What is dust and fluff.
Song from the movie
“Property of the Republic” (1971)
to poems by Yu. Entin
stories about weapons. We continue the series of stories about weapons that are in the possession of the Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. And there are many very interesting examples of edged weapons from the past.
Sword
And we will start with this sword with a rich embossed card and even a seemingly very thin blade.
What is it and why?
It turns out that this is the sword of a Russian official, that is, part of his uniform. I held it in my hands... The blade gives the impression of something like a toy. I thought it could be easily broken. But this sword was not intended for combat...
Just in the 18th–19th centuries. in Russia, as well as in Western Europe, the sword turned into a sign of the noble class, and with the development of bureaucracy it also became an important accessory of an official’s uniform. It was called: “the uniform sword of civil officials” and was supposed to be worn by civil and court officials, as well as retired officials with ceremonial, festive and ordinary uniforms.
The rescript of the Sovereign Emperor dated April 18, 1855 stated that “triangular hats and swords have a uniform shape in all departments, according to the newly approved samples... Swords are worn on military belts, fastened under a half-caftan, in which there is for this purpose, below the waist, a transverse a two-inch cut. The same sword belt is also required for the ceremonial uniforms of persons of the first three ranks.”
However, the same sword also became part of the uniform of students at imperial universities and a number of educational institutions in Russia until 1917. For Russian civil officials, a new uniform type of sword, to which this sword belongs, was introduced in 1855.
Sword hilt 1855. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
The length of the blade was 70–80 cm, width 1,5–2 cm. The total length reached 98 cm. The width of the blade at the guard was 2,5 cm. The thickness of the blade at the guard was 4,5 mm. The cross-section of the blade could vary greatly, apparently, it was not critical. This sword weighed about 800 g. The handle was intertwined with twisted brass wire.
A characteristic feature of the sword hilt was its “empire” hilt, which came to Russia at the beginning of the 1834th century. Its pommel was made in the form of a lion's head, on the crosshair there was a decorative shield, on the bow, in an oval rosette, there was the monogram of Emperor Nicholas I. According to the “Regulations on Civil Uniforms” of XNUMX, such swords were prescribed for wearing by all court and civil ranks, who were dressed in uniforms, or in uniforms.
The sword shield was decorated with a relief image of a double-headed eagle. Moreover, the shield of 1834 was hammered from a single piece of brass, but on the sword of 1855 they began to make it slotted, from two thin sheets of brass superimposed on one another. On the eagle’s wings were depicted eight “titular” coats of arms of the Russian Empire, four on each side.
On the right side were the coats of arms of Kazan, Poland, Tauride Chersonese and the combined coat of arms of the Grand Duchies (Kyiv, Vladimir, Novgorod). On the left are the coats of arms of Astrakhan, Siberia, Georgia, Finland. After 1857, when the Russian coat of arms changed somewhat, the coat of arms of the eagle was replaced by swords - now the wings began to be depicted raised and with the coats of arms of the provinces of the empire.
It is interesting that civilian swords were supposed to be removed when worshiping icons.
Grooms dressed in ceremonial uniforms were required to take them off at the wedding ceremony. Swords were also unfastened from the belt at balls so that they would not interfere with the dancing. On May 11, 1898, officials of the Forester Corps also received a civilian sword, and since 1904 in the Russian Empire it was assigned to almost all of its officials.
Saber
The next object of our story will be a saber, and the author was lucky enough to get acquainted with this example of it back in 1971, when my mother remarried and invited me to see the “new dad” - Pyotr Shpakovsky. He had a real museum at home, where I saw almost exactly the same saber. “The German general gave it to me when I accepted his surrender,” he said and showed me the “Solingen” mark on its blade and... the eyes of a lion on the handle, made of artificial rubies.
These are the sabers worn by Wehrmacht generals during World War II. Moreover, apparently, this saber was clearly made to order, since on the reverse guard of the blade two letters H are engraved, inserted one into the other. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
It would be very interesting, of course, to do it history, but... unfortunately, I don’t have any time for this. But if one of the VO readers decides to do this, I promise, for my part, any photographs of this artifact that may be needed for such research.
Blade engraving. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
It turned out that in anticipation of a new war, the German company C. Eickhorn decided to produce a series of so-called field marshal sabers, bearing the names of famous German commanders. Each such saber bore the name of one of these outstanding figures in Germany and had its own catalog number.
The series included nine sabers of a similar design, developed by Paul Kasberg. All sabers were manufactured from 1936 to 1938, and the appearance of each was patented and protected by German copyright law. This was also indicated by the mark on the inner surface of the guard - Ges Geshutz, which meant that if this particular part of the saber was counterfeited, the fraudster would be dealt with according to the law!
Naturally, the German generals began to order such ceremonial sabers en masse, so quite a lot of them were produced.
The front side of the handle (tsuka), covered with skin from the belly of a stingray (same). Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
Reverse side of the tsuka handle. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
Japanese blade
There are also two Japanese blades in the collection of the Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Moreover, the first, earlier one is of great interest.
In general, this is an ordinary Japanese katana sword, which could well have been made before 1868, and then sold to some foreigner for need.
The wooden fastening pin (mekugi) and the metal fastening coupling of the tsuba guard - futi, as well as the back, that is, the front, side of the tsuba, are clearly visible. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
This photo shows the outer surface of the tsuba, the seppa washer and the part that attaches the tsuba to the blade - the habaki coupling. Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. Author's photo
And that's the most interesting thing about this blade.
And he himself, and the handle, and the design details of the handle look quite new, which absolutely cannot be said about its tsuba, which looks very rough and was made only by blacksmithing. Here we encounter an interesting phenomenon of Japanese culture: the old has always been valued by the Japanese more than the new. That is why they protected the tsuba from old swords and, if they could not save their blades (it happened and often that they simply broke!), but they kept the tsuba and transferred the old tsuba to new swords for several generations!
So on this sword, the tsuba in its appearance may well belong to a sword of the 11th or even 10th century, while the sword itself looks very new...
The last Japanese military artifact is a Japanese saber, an obvious trophy of the Russo-Japanese War. Judging by the shape of the handle, this is an army saber, since its scabbard is metal and painted khaki.
The fact that this is an army saber and not a police saber (and they look very similar) is indicated by the five-petalled cherry blossom on the hilt.
For police sabers, the same badge consisted of 10 petals. The coat of arms of Japan - the imperial chrysanthemum inside the badge indicates that the saber was produced at the state arsenal.
Scabbard mouth and mounting ring
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