Turkey, Ottoman Empire. A Naval Officer’s Dress Sword, by Alexander Coppel

An unusual Ottoman Navy Officer’s dress sword, measuring 91 cm in total length. It features a 78 cm-long, nickel-plated, magnetic steel blade with a gentle curvature and with a narrow fuller running the majority of the length of the top edge of each side of the blade. Both the tip and lower edge retain their factory-original sharpening. The blade bears double-sided acid-etched imagery consisting of central Ottoman crescents surrounding five-pointed stars, flanked by fouled anchors and ships, all in turn situated within arabesque latticework. The reverse ricasso is maker marked with the classic scale logo of the firm of Alexander Coppel, Solingen (later Alcoso). It sits securely within a multi-piece hilt. The former features dual gilded brass clamshell situated on functional hinges, with the obverse bearing a raised fouled anchor topped by three five-pointed stars. A protruding hand guard connects to a flattened pommel, while a single piece of ribbed off-white celluloid composes the handle grip, with the ribbing retaining an original twisted and rolled bronze wire cord. Wrapped around the handle is a matching portepee, consisting of a stylized silver aluminum wire acorn suspended from a cord of identical construction and interspersed with black and red threading. Accompanying the sword is its original scabbard, constructed of a boiled and blackened leather shaft. Three brass fixtures are secured to the tip, mid-section, and throat. The latter two retain loops for the accommodation of a hanger. Significant issues consistent with age and field wear are evident, and include running marks and surface oxidation throughout the blade, cracking of both of the clamshells (resulting in some damage to the reverse clamshell’s hinge), some denting of the pomel, the loss of the scabbard throat fixture’s rivet, and friction which renders full insertion of the blade into the scabbard impossible. This scarce German-made example remains in a very fine condition.