French boarding saber or naval cutlass

CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE AS OCT. 2021

At last, a French boarding saber of the first half of the 18th century! The brass counterguard bears on its two faces the profile of King Louis XV in a Roman style. This is not a weapon following an official pattern. It is more probably the private production of one of the suppliers of the ministère de la Marine (Department of the Navy) in the 1740s-1760s. Such sabers were recovered from the wreck of Le Machault, a frigate sank south of the Gaspe Peninsula in 1760, at Fort Saint-Frédéric (Crown Point, NY), at Fort de Chartres (Illinois) and at the Old Mobile site (Alabama). It is likely they were also traded with the Natives since other sabers of this type — with various blades and grips — are found in American collections.