Dutch honorary sword for a privateer 1783

[mrcwgmn]

Another sword made in silver. This time made in 1783. It's based on the design for the Doggersbank honorary swords. These swords were issued to the captains that participated in the battle in 1781 against the British during the fourth Dutch-Anglo war by the stadhouder Willem V. De stadhouder was the predecessor of the king. His heirs are still the Dutch royal family today. About 16 were issued.



Around the same time there were commissioned privateers attacking the British. Two of the most famous are Jarry and Le Turcq. Both operated from Vlissingen. In 1783 both of them were given an honorary sword as well but in this case made from solid silver and with the city's coat of arms on them.

Some info on them: https://www.zeeuwsarchief.nl/en/zeeland ... aas-jarry/

There you also notice two etchings they are depicted on:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.152436
http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.152420

The sword I'm showing you here is one of those two swords. Either Jarry or Le Turcq. I can be so sure because the etchings are so detailled. The maker is Scheurleer. He also made some of the before mentioned Doggersbank swords. They are identical (not the one I have it was made by another maker and the model is the same but the details are different).

Sword was made in Den Haag, where Scheurleer was located and dated 1783. It's very likely he made the hilt himself as he had the moulds but instead of using brass which he did for the Doggersbank swords he this time used silver.

Currently the sword is on loan to the Muzeeum in Vlissingen where it's on permanent display.

[oel]

Another great contribution, thanks Marco.


The stork with eal without crown, the town mark of The Hague, for silver 2nd standard 833/000. The year letter L for 1782.
This proves the silver hilt went to the guild assay room of The Hague. Officially, only members of the gold and silver guild could use the assay room, and only if they had a registered master's mark/responsibility mark with the guild. To my knowledge, Abraham Scheurleer was not registered with the Hague gold & silver guild. Are there no other marks on the hilt?
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/NG-KOG-980

Source; Elias Voet Jr. Merken van Haagsche goud-en zilversmeden, uitgave 1941.

[mrcwgmn]

Not that I have seen and not easy to check as now as it's in the museum. I'll go over the pictures again but I think that was all. And as Scheurleer made identical hilts for the Doggersbank swords he must have used those moulds to make this I would assume. There is a Scheurleer Doggersbank sabre in the Rijksmuseum:

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/zoeken/ob ... -KOG-980,6

The hilt is identical and again other Doggersbank swords what were made by other sword smiths are at first sight the same but then you look at the details and you see the small differences. I"m not an expert on casting silver but I would assume he had some mould he used and then probably refined the details afterwards.

So I'm not disagreeing with you by the way :-) I just find it fascinating and the more I can learn about it the better.