A.W. SPIES “SCREAMING EAGLE” POMMEL SABER AND SCABBARD

$850.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 362-1260

This eagle-pommel saber bears an etched and gilt maker/retailer address behind the obverse langet: “A,W, SPIES / Warranted.” (The punctuation is clearly commas; the “warranted,” placed at bottom, is a bit dark on the left.) For details on Adam W. Spies and his business associations see Bazelon’s Directory, Volumes 1 and 2. He was born in 1800 and seems to have worked for the military goods business of Christopher and J.D. Wolfe in New York City from about 1814 to 1823 when he went to Britain on their behalf, returning about 1830. He remained connected to the Wolfe operation for a couple of years as Wolfe, Spies & Clark and then as Wolfe, Dash & Spies, appearing in listings under his own name about 1833, with Bazelon, V. 1, saying he seems to have been mainly in the gun business after 1835, but we find him advertising hardware and fine cutlery among other things as well as guns and pistols. He seems to have made enough money to retire about 1850, but then got back into the military goods business when the war started in 1861.

The saber measures 35-1/2” overall and has a 30” tri-color blade. The hilt shows traces of a thin silver wash, missing from the scabbard mounts, which are now a medium brass tone, but show some shading. The eagle is a rather fierce rendition with open mouth showing the tongue and having a very prominent hooked beak, termed by at least one collector as a “screaming eagle” pattern. Its feathers extend part way down the neck but end with a short, raised collar near the top of the bone grip and the rest of the backstrap, extending down to the guard, is smooth metal. The knucklebow is the reverse-P pattern, elaborately cast and chased with spiral cornucopias at top and bottom spilling their contents of berries or fruits and leaves toward each other in a wave decorated at the center on either side with three, raised, five-pointed stars. The crossguard is flat, plain from the bottom of the lower cornucopia, widening slightly across the quillon block and then narrowing again to end in a second, smaller eagle’s head finial. The guard is fitted langets that are roughly shield shaped, but seem to be inverted palmettes of five leaves delineated by beaded lines, with another across the bottom, with the ends of the leaves curling slightly inwards. The grip is white bone, now a cream color with a little faint yellow, carved with straight ribs at the bottom, slanted ribs toward the top and a basketweave between. There is just a slight bit of chipping near the junction of the knucklebow and pommel on the obverse.

The lower half of the blade is blue and gilt, with the upper half bright. The blue has thinned somewhat, and lower portions have oxidized toward brown, more noticeable on the obverse than reverse, but the blue is very evident and the gilt motifs stand out well. These are in three groups on either side. On the reverse a leafy branch springs up from leaves behind the langet. Above that floats a kettle drum with two lances crossed behind it, and a short, leafy branch poking out to either side and top and bottom. The final motif is another, fairly straight, leafy branch with five small circles below. The obverse has the A.W. SPIES / WARRANTED marking behind the langet with a cluster of drums, cannon barrels and an oval shield immediately above, with a vine-entwined pole with a distended liberty cap on top jutting upward. Above that floats a U.S. shield with a pike with flag and another liberty cap on a pole crossing behind it, along with a leafy vine, and the last motif is an oval rimmed with semicircles looking like an empty picture frame with thin leafy branches springing out of it, with three small circles below. The blade point is good. The edge shows some very small nicks in the upper, bright portion of the blade.

The scabbard is black leather with brass mounts. Both upper and middle mounts have carrying rings. The upper mount has frog stud as well. The carrying rings are top mounted by simple loops. The middle mount and drag have matching wave or flamelike edges. All have simple incised straight line decoration. The upper mount is a bit loose. The rear seam of the scabbard is good. The leather shows crazing and cracking to the finish, with some rubs along the lower edge, but not a lot of finish loss. There is creasing and a weak area just above the drag so the scabbard should be kept flat or held point down when drawing the blade.

This is an impressive saber with rather “over the top” hilt ornamentation that combines the normal peace and prosperity associations of the cornucopia (“horn-of-plenty”) with a decidedly warlike eagle’s head and patriotic stars.  [sr][ph:L]

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