EL7227 - The Highland Field Officer's broadsword of Roderick W Colquhoun, the 90th Argyll & Sutherland Highland Reserve Battalion. He was commissioned in 1880, when this Pillin broadsword blade presumably dates to, and eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, in command at the Cape when the Second Anglo-Boer War started. This sword comes from the family and is fresh to the collectors' market, and there is plenty more research potential. The 32.5 inch blade by Pillin, of standard form, the etching rubbed in places, but overall bright and clean (not sharpened as far as I can tell). The heavy cavalry 1821 pattern hilt was used by senior officers and was presumably added to the sword a little later, and the end of the tang has been peened tight rather than there being a nut. The hilt has the checkered thumb placer showing that this is probably pre-1895 in date. Complete in a field service scabbard which again would have been a later addition, probably when he went to South Africa. Everything tight with no movement.
