Naval Presentation Sword

The beautifully conceived hilt of this sword was previously unrecognized as made from models created by the artist John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) and appears to be the only complete hilt of this design to survive. Early in his career, while establishing his reputation for the small and large-scale figural works that made him the most famous American sculptor of the Civil War era, Ward created models for a variety of decorative items and executed at least five important commissions for the design of presentation arms. These include a sword given to Ulysses S. Grant (Smithsonian Institution); a pair of pistols given by President Abraham Lincoln to the governor of Adrianople, Turkey (FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY); two swords presented by Lincoln to the King of Thailand as diplomatic gifts (present whereabouts unknown), and a naval presentation sword awarded to Admiral Andrew Hull Foote in 1863 (present whereabouts unknown).

The sword seen here, a promised gift to the Met, is closely related to the Foote sword. Although there are no images of the Foote sword, the details of its appearance are known through two sources. The first consists of extensive written descriptions published in contemporary accounts of the presentation of the sword to Admiral Foote. The second is the existence of an unfinished bronze cast, perhaps the original test casting, of the shell guard of the sword, which is immediately recognizable due to its distinctive high relief decoration. This cast was given to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York shortly after Ward’s death, along with other material from his studio, by Ward’s third and only surviving wife, Rachel Mackinson Ostrander Smith Ward (1849–1933). The Met sword is highly significant, therefore, both for the beauty and originality of its design and as a vivid and important representation of an otherwise lost work by Ward, one that amply demonstrates his appreciation of classical ornament and his great skills as a modeler.

Ward was one of the founding Trustees of the fledgling Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870. In addition to several small sculptures by Ward, the Met’s collection also includes another beautiful example of a luxurious weapon with decoration from Ward’s hand. This is a rare and elaborate pistol (acc. no. 2014.699) with its grip sumptuously modeled in low relief. The grip is a contemporaneous cast made from the same molds as the one that Ward designed for the pair of pistols presented by President Lincoln to the governor of Adrianople in 1864, mentioned above.