German Artillery Sword, anything else?

[RiMo]

My wife inherited this sword from her Grandfather. He said that he found it in a bombed building in Germany during WWII.
It seems to be in very good condition. It has never been sharpened. Is that a good or bad thing when it comes to the swords worth?
In the last picture, I was trying to get an image of the etching. It may be a suit of armor with "ANTL WIGEN" above it.
I have done a little searching on the net and I think it is a German Artillery sword. Can anyone add to this?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[mandingo8112]

Rimo..Nice sword,A lot of dress,parade, and presentation swords are not sharpened that I have seen...It was probably a good thing too as no doubt they were proud of the thing and showed it off, and it got handled a lot..I would personally take it to a reputable knife maker who could clean it up...a lot of old sword cases had thin strip of wood inside of unknown origin which held moisture and caused swords and knives to rust if stored in them for a prolonged time..best to display separated..After cleaning up a coating of any good car wax should help prevent further deterioration.. Be cautious when cleaning not to deminish or obliterate any markings which may later help to identify sword or knife..Hope this helps..

 

[Andrew Taylor]

Nice sword, and complete with 'portapee', the sword knot. The maker is likely to be Anton Wenger from your decyphering of the letters.

BTW, I have never seen a steel scabbard with a wooden liner, only leather covered scabbards. The throat of your scabbard contains two bent springs to hold the blade, and you can remove the assembly by undoing the two screws which I can see in the picture.

Clean the blade with a good quality chrome cleaner like Solvol Autosol, and then use a beeswax polish to protect the steel. The hilt and knuckle guard is fine as it is.