EL7347 - A scarce Victorian Highland officer's broadsword with the remains of etching to the '90th Highland Borderers Light Infantry'. This militia regiment was separate to the 90th Regiment of Foot, and this leeds to some confusion in the records. The sword, in my estimation, dates to around the 1860s or 1870s, and it has been extensively service sharpened, which has removed a lot of the decorative blade etching. I don't know which campaign it was service shaprpened for, but I believe the regiment saw action in the Zulu Wars, which would be the right period for this sword. The blade also has some light pitting. Note the characteristic 'cant' to the tang, which many mid-Victorian basket-hilted broadswords have, and which later examples usually abandoned, as they reverted to straighter grips in relation to the blade. The blade is 32.5 inches long and would benefit from careful cleaning. The hilt is complete, and has the usual screw nut at the tang end, to enable the fitting of the cross-hilt instead of the basket-hilt. The hilt is somewhat loose on the tang, I suspect because it needs the addition of a now-missing washer, or perhaps the silk tassle created a tighter mounting originally. No scabbard unfortunately. A scarce sword well worthy of some careful cleaning and preservation.
