Smallsword Hilt and Scabbard Mounts

Inscription: [1] lion passant guardant
[2] leopard's head crowned
[3] Roman capital B (London date letter for 1797-8)
[4] I M in rectangle (?) (maker's mark) (Mark of John Moore, entered 1778 ? See Refs.: Jackson)
[5] king's head, profile to right
Location of marks
[1] and [4] on guard; [1] and [4] on grip; [1] on pommel; [1],[2],[3] and [5] on knuckle guard; [1] and [5] on top chape; [4] on ring chape; [1] on chape.

Inscribed: (twice, once on either side of blade) La fidelité me conduit Me fecit Sohlingen (Faithfulness guides me. Sohlingen made me.)

Marking: Arms: Quarterly of four:
1. gules, three lions passant-guardant or (England) impaling, or, a lion rampant within a bordure fleury-counterfleury gules (Scotland)
2. azure, three fleurs-de-lys or (France)
3. azure, a harp or stringed argent (Ireland)
4. Arms of Hanover: a) gules, two lons passant-guardant in pale or (Brunswick); b) or, semé of hearts proper, a lion rampant azure, armed and langued gules (Lunenberg); c) gules, a horse courant argent (Saxony); over all on an inescutcheon of pretense gules, crown of Charlemagne or.
Coat of arms surrounded by the Garter, inscribed: Honi soit qui mal y pense; beneath shield, on banderole: Dieu et mon droit.
This was the coat of arms borne first by King George I of England, and later by King George II until 1801 when the fleur-de-lys were dropped from the arms of England.

Clarence H. Mackay, Roslyn, NY (until d. 1938; his estate, sold through Seligmann & Co. to Grancsay); Stephen V. Grancsay, New York (by January 14, 1941–42; his gift to MMA).

Cussans, John E. The Handbook of Heraldry: With Instructions for Tracing Pedigrees and Deciphering Ancient Mss. ; Also Rules for the Appointment of Liveries, Etc.. London: John Camden Hotten, 1869. p. 218–219.

Jackson, Charles James Sir. English Goldsmiths and Their Marks: A History of the Goldsmiths and Plate Workers of England, Scotland, and Ireland.... 2nd Edition ed. London: MacMillan, 1921. p. 88 (for marks 1,2,3, and 5) p. 222 (for mark of John Moore).

Grancsay, Stephen V. "Enriched Historical Arms." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7, no. 4 vol. 7, no 4 , p. 109, ill.

Blair, Claude. Three Presentation Swords in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Group of English Enamels. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1972. p. 47, no. 14.

Grancsay, Stephen V., and Stuart W. Pyhrr. Arms & Armor: Essays by Stephen V. Grancsay from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1920–1964. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. pp. 328–329; fig. 98.3.

Southwick, Leslie. "New Facts About James Morisset and a Revised List of His Known Works, With Others by his Successors John Ray and James Montague." The Journal of the Arms and Armor Society (Sept. 1997), pp. 327–29, no. 17.