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Help identifying turkish sword from 1897
- Thread starter Tngti
- Start date
horseclover
Basic Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2000
- Messages
- 3,521
This appears to be a senior officer's presentation sword made by WKC in Solingen. The two gilt touch marks of the crowned king and knight's bust will affirm that. The Weyersburg and Kirsrchbaum family businesses combined in the early 1880s and continue to make swords to this day. Both families have been around for some centuries.
http://www.military-swords.com/startweb.php
My suggestion is that you register over at www.swordforum.com and post to the Antique&military section. http://www.swordforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11 Hail George Wheeler and others there that are quite familiar with the background for such presentation swords, while the Turkish aspect may need some further research and discussion there.
I cannot tell from the photos whether the blade is of mechanical damascus or not but I would not be surprised, as it was a common enough trait for these presentation level swords from Solingen. If you can transcribe the text on the sides of the blade, translation will be helpful in offering the information.
While that board does not do appraisals, Dick Bezdek and others can do a paid appraisal http://www.theswordman.com/ A couple of others I can think of off the top of my head are http://arms2armor.com/ and http://www.gundersonmilitaria.com/ For an insurance appraisal, auction houses and insurance companies such as www.historicfirearms.com/ can probably help.
Condition is everything in terms of market worth and this sword could attract a pretty narrow market of interest. On the front page of www.swordforum.com and also posted in the A&M subforum are some basic conservation tips. Do nothing to it until considering what may be lost in any cleaning at all. the gilt will go in a flash if not gentle with it and would decrease interest and value by double and more. This is a very well done sword in its time and deserves as much care as can be taken in generally handling it.
Good luck with the research on this one. It is worth delving deep to figure this one out. The provenance of the sword could be a quite interesting story once background is found.
The handle may be a natural product or well done early plastic, I can't say from the photo. Be very careful with what wire is left. That can be tightened up but don't mess with it if unsure of one's own capability. All the gilt can be cleaned carefully but any wiping can remove it quite quickly, so gentle is the word. Soft cloth or paper towels (the soft ones) and first Windex and then very light oil, like sewing machine oil. The conservation article will regard such as clp products. Note there though that blade gilt of that type is fragile, absolutely fragile.
Cheers
GC
http://www.military-swords.com/startweb.php
My suggestion is that you register over at www.swordforum.com and post to the Antique&military section. http://www.swordforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11 Hail George Wheeler and others there that are quite familiar with the background for such presentation swords, while the Turkish aspect may need some further research and discussion there.
I cannot tell from the photos whether the blade is of mechanical damascus or not but I would not be surprised, as it was a common enough trait for these presentation level swords from Solingen. If you can transcribe the text on the sides of the blade, translation will be helpful in offering the information.
While that board does not do appraisals, Dick Bezdek and others can do a paid appraisal http://www.theswordman.com/ A couple of others I can think of off the top of my head are http://arms2armor.com/ and http://www.gundersonmilitaria.com/ For an insurance appraisal, auction houses and insurance companies such as www.historicfirearms.com/ can probably help.
Condition is everything in terms of market worth and this sword could attract a pretty narrow market of interest. On the front page of www.swordforum.com and also posted in the A&M subforum are some basic conservation tips. Do nothing to it until considering what may be lost in any cleaning at all. the gilt will go in a flash if not gentle with it and would decrease interest and value by double and more. This is a very well done sword in its time and deserves as much care as can be taken in generally handling it.
Good luck with the research on this one. It is worth delving deep to figure this one out. The provenance of the sword could be a quite interesting story once background is found.
The handle may be a natural product or well done early plastic, I can't say from the photo. Be very careful with what wire is left. That can be tightened up but don't mess with it if unsure of one's own capability. All the gilt can be cleaned carefully but any wiping can remove it quite quickly, so gentle is the word. Soft cloth or paper towels (the soft ones) and first Windex and then very light oil, like sewing machine oil. The conservation article will regard such as clp products. Note there though that blade gilt of that type is fragile, absolutely fragile.
Cheers
GC
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