AMEKICAN AND EUROPEAN SWORDS O 



and character of the grooves it contains are all given as important 

 points in connection with the determination of its general type and 

 history. The hilt, which is described next, consists of the grip, or 

 that part grasped by the hand; the pommel, or end; the knuckle 

 guard, extending below the grip from the pommel to the end of the 

 blade; and the quillons, which are, strictly speaking, straight bars 

 crossing the grip in the axis of the blade and at right angles to the 

 latter. In this bulletin, however, the term " quillon " is also used 

 to describe the portion of the guard occupying the position mentioned 

 above the blade regardless of whether it is a separate piece or merely 

 the continuation of the guard. 



The front of the guard, even when merely the continuation of the 

 lower portion, is often termed the counterguard. The decorative 

 plates attached to the quillons on each side of the blade when par- 

 allel to it are termed shields. When these are enlarged and placed 

 at right angles to the blade they are treated as a unit and termed 

 the counterguard. This name is also occasionally applied to the 

 front of the basket-shaped knuckle guard. This method of nomen- 

 clature renders it possible to describe the more simple types of nine- 

 teenth century guards more accurately than would be possible by 

 confining the above terms to their strictly technical significance. 

 All the specimens herein are described as seen with the knuckle guard 

 below the grip and with the blade extending to the right of the 

 observer. The side of the sword thus visible is then termed the 

 obverse and the other side the reverse. 



In a paper such as this, in which the emphasis is placed on the his- 

 torical character of the specimens described, it has seemed best to 

 give the technical descriptions in footnotes. This information in- 

 cludes the length of the sword, the length of the blade, the width of 

 the blade, and the marks or inscriptions referring to the commercial 

 origin of the weapon. 



The term " saber," strictly speaking, should be applied to all weap- 

 ons of the sword type with a single-edge blade, whether curved or 

 straight.^ In connection with the classification of the National 

 Museum collection, however, it has seemed best in most cases to 

 classify as sabers only those weapons of this type with curved blades, 

 as this phraseology is more in accordance with popular usage. 

 Weapons of this type were designed mostly for actual use in war- 

 fare and were rarely carried merely as an insignia of rank. Only 

 in rare instances were sabers used for the purpose of presentation. 

 They are usually of much less ornate design than the swords of a 

 corresponding period, and fewer types of sabers as compared with 

 swords have been developed within the same periods. The history 

 of the saber is consequently somewhat less complex than is that of 



1 See Lacombe, M. P., Arms and armour. Translated by Charles Boutell. London, 1893. 



