AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR HANGER C.1775-83

Gilt brass hilt with four slot guards and reeded olive form pommel. Reeded wood grip which appears to be walnut, which we’ve never seen on any but American swords. 26 3/8” broad wedge section blade with broad medial fuller and narrow back fuller, stopper for the long false edge. The root of the fuller on the right side shows a crisp remnant of engraved decoration suggesting that the blade was repolished at the time it was mounted to this sword before the war. The fact that it is engraved rather than etched as with virtually all swords of the period further supports American manufacture. Further evidence is that the right fuller is stopped (end with a transverse edge) while the left “runs out” or tapers.  A particularly heavy fighting example which would have served as the primary weapon of an American infantryman in the early war years when firearms were in short supply and most soldiers were armed with swords and spears only.